A 2 year old child has a weight of 6.4kg and has vitamin A deficiency. What is the grade of malnutrition in this child –
Correct Answer: Second degree
Description: Here, weight of child is 6.4 kg Age = 2 years Weight for normal child of same age (According to growth chas) : 9 According to gomez formula Weight for age (%) = 6.4/8.5x100= 71.1% Child is 2nd degree malnourished Gomez' classification Gomez' classification is based on weight retardation. It locates the child on the basis of . his or her weight in comparison with a normal child of the same age. In this system,. the "normal" reference child is in the 50th centile of the Boston standards. The cut-off values were set during a study of risk of death based on weight for age at admission to a hospital unit. This classification therefore, has a prognostic value for hospitalized children Between 90 and 110% : normal nutritional status Between 75 and 89% :1st degree, mild malnutrition Between 60 and 74% :2nd degree, moderate malnutrition Under60% :3rd degree, severe malnutrition Weight is widely recorded and the classification is easy to compute. The disadvantages are (a) A cut-off-point of 90 per cent of reference is high (80 per cent being approximately equivalent to -2SD or the 3rd percentile), thus some normal children may be classified as 1st degree malnourished. (b) By measuring only weight for age it is difficult to know if the low weight is due to a sudden acute episode of malnutrition or to long-standing chronic undernutrition Ref : Park 25th edition Pgno : 582
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