PROBLEMS AND PITFALLS IN THE USE OF ESTIMATED AGE IN ANTHROPOMETRIC MEASUREMENTS OF CHILDREN FROM 6 TO 60 MONTHS OF AGE - A CASE FROM MALI

Estimates of the age of children are often used uncritically in anthro pometric measures. This study shows that even with construction of cal endars for use of determination of age, substantial training, a carefu l follow-up in the field by research assistants, and control of all qu estionnaires immediately after the interviews of the caretakers and we ighing of the children, errors remain in estimating the age of childre n. Such errors may affect the results substantially, leading to errors in the estimation of age-based measures of nutritional status. In the case of Northern Mall, the effect was most likely an underestimation of malnutrition by perhaps as much as 10 to 30 percentage points. The biases in age estimation in many cases are not constant across subgrou ps of a population. Therefore age estimation problems may lead to wron g decisions regarding policy formulation, planning of development prog rams and activities, identification of target groups, and,in particula r, evaluation of programs and activities. In situations where age has to be estimated, anthropometric measurements that are less influenced by errors in age estimation are recommended.