A. Oshaug et al., 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, The Journal of nutrition, 124(5), 1994, pp. 636-644
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.