Mid-upper arm circumference of mothers presenting to Shabelle Health and Nutrition Center by child nutrition and mother gestational status—November 2019 to March 2020 (n=2064)†
| Nutritional status of the child aged 6–59 months | |||
| Wasted‡ | Non-wasted | All children | |
| n | 1197 | 867 | 2064 |
| Mother status§¶ | |||
| Pregnant, n | 333 | 265 | 598 |
| MUAC <23 cm, n (%) | 80 (24.0)* | 41 (15.5)* | 121 (20.2) |
| Mean MUAC (SD) | 25.62 (3.77)* | 26.31 (3.32)* | 25.93 (3.59) |
| Lactating, n | 63 | 72 | 135 |
| MUAC <23 cm, n (%) | 11 (17.5) | 16 (22.2) | 27 (20.0) |
| Mean MUAC (SD) | 26.28 (3.48) | 26.56 (4.1) | 26.43 (3.81) |
| Neither pregnant nor lactating, n | 801 | 530 | 1331 |
| MUAC ≤24 cm, n (%) | 291 (36.3) *** | 138 (26.0) *** | 429 (32.2) |
| Mean MUAC (SD) | 26.17 (3.83)** | 26.76 (3.63)** | 26.41 (3.76) |
*p<0.05; **p<0.01; ***p<0.001 indicated as significant.
†Significant p values were calculated comparing mothers with wasted children to mothers with non-wasted children.
‡Wasted is defined as children aged 6–59 months with WHZ <−2 and/or MUAC <12.5 cm and/or bilateral oedema. All other children were defined as non-wasted.
§Mother status was defined to be mutually exclusive. Pregnant mothers included women who self-identified as pregnant. Lactating mothers included non-pregnant mothers breast feeding a child between the ages of 0 and 5 months; the breastfed child was not necessarily the child enrolled in the study. Neither pregnant nor lactating mothers were defined as women who were neither pregnant nor lactating a child aged 0–5 months.
¶Mothers missing information on MUAC (n=18) or MUAC out of range (n=60) were excluded from this analysis (total excluded, n=78).
MUAC, mid-upper arm circumference; WHZ, weight-for-height z-score.