1. Dasgupta A et al, Assessment of malnutrition among adolescents: Can BMI be replaced by MUAC. Indian J Community Med 2010;35:276-9

2. Learning objective:  To learn sensitivity and specificity of a test.

3. Introduction :  Malnutrition – impairrment of health arising either from deficiency or excess or imbalance of nutrients in body.  Around 20% of the global world's population and around 84% of them are found in developing countries.  Adolescents constituted 22.8% of the population in India.

4. Objective of the study:  To find out the magnitude of malnutrition among the adolescents of an urban slum of Kolkata study population.  To compare the middle upper arm circumference (MUAC) with that of body mass index (BMI) for determination of nutritional status of the study population

5. Methodology : Tools and technique InterviewMUAC and BMI Study population One section from each class5 th to 12 th (10-19) UHC Chetla All high schoolSRS- one school selected

6. Results and discussion:  Almost half of the adolescents of both sexes are not getting even 70% of their daily requirements of energy and a quarter of them are getting less than 70% of RDA of proteins.  Malnutrition is seen in 30% of adolescent girls and 18% boys.

7.  Table 1: Frequency distribution of adolescents in relation to their nutritional status according to their BMI and MUAC (n=194) Nutritional status BMI (kg/m) (n=194) MUAC (cm) (n=194) 5 to 95 percentile (Normal) 101 (52.06)**77 (39.69) < 5 percentile (undernourished) 93 (47.93)117 (60.30)

8. Malnutrition (MUAC) Malnutrition(BMI)Total yes88(TP)29(FP)117(TP+FP) no5(FN)72(TN)77(FN+TN) Total93(TP+FN)101(FP+TN)194(TP+FP+ FN+TN

9. Evalution of screening of nutritional status by MUAC measuresResults (%) Sensitivity94.6 Specificity71.2 Predictive value of positive test75.2 Predictive value of negative test93.5 Percentage of false negative5.3 Percentage of false positive28.7 Positive likelihood ratio3.284 Negative likelihood ratio0.075

10. cont  Indices comparing weight and height cannot be used to assess pregnant adolescents

11. Conclusion :  It can be stated that the mid arm circumferenc e measuremen t i s a r eliabl e and a feasible method of assessment of nutritional status of adolescents.