ANTHROPOMETRY AS A PREDICTOR FOR MORTALITY AMONG UGANDAN CHILDREN, ALLOWING FOR SOCIOECONOMIC VARIABLES

Length, height, weight and mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) were mea sured in 4320 children aged between 0 and 59 months, and their socio-e conomic status was assessed, in 31 villages in Southwest Uganda during March-April 1988. A follow-up survey assessed the mortality of the ch ildren during the 12 months following anthropometry. Mortality rates w ere higher in those with low anthropometric indices at the first surve y. MUAC was the most sensitive predictor of mortality followed by weig ht-for-age, height-for-age and weight-tor-height. MUAC increased the p redictive power of other parameters whereas the other parameters did n ot increase the predictive power of MUAC. MUAC below 12.5, 11.5 and 10 .5 cm predicted 10.9%, 18.7% and 36.5% of the deaths respectively. Nut ritional status was worse in the low socio-economic group but the pred ictive power of anthropometry for mortality was not influenced by soci o-economic status. This suggests that nutrition per se has an influenc e on mortality which is independent of socio-economic status.