Assessment of Nutritional Status of A Child - MCH Flashcards
What is nutritional status?
Nutritional status is the balance between intake and expenditure of nutrients in growth, reproduction, and health maintenance.
Name factors that influence nutritional status.
Maternal health status, birth weight, food intake quantity and quality, physical health.
What is the spectrum of nutritional status?
From severe undernutrition to obesity.
List the purposes of nutritional assessment.
Identify malnourished individuals/groups, guide interventions, evaluate program effectiveness.
What are the two methods of nutritional assessment?
Direct and indirect methods.
What does ABCD stand for in direct nutritional assessment?
Anthropometric, Biochemical, Clinical, Dietary.
Define anthropometry.
The measurement of body height, weight, and proportions.
What is the primary purpose of growth charts in children?
To monitor growth velocity and compare it to international standards.
What are the four CDC growth chart categories for weight status?
Underweight (<5th percentile), Healthy (5-85th), Overweight (85-95th), Obese (≥95th).
Differentiate between severe underweight and underweight in children.
Severe underweight: <3 SD; Underweight: <2 SD.
Explain the classification of nutritional status using BMI-for-age.
BMI-for-age is age- and sex-specific and compared to CDC standards.
What are the advantages of anthropometry?
Objective, reproducible, measures many variables, non-expensive.
State the limitations of anthropometric methods.
Observer errors, limited diagnosis, arbitrary cut-off values.
Why is haemoglobin estimation important in biochemical assessment?
It reveals anaemia, protein, and trace element nutrition.
What stool examinations are used in nutritional assessment?
Stool examination for ova or intestinal parasites.
Name three specific biochemical tests for nutritional status.
Serum retinol, urinary iodine, riboflavin deficiency detection.
List the advantages of biochemical methods.
Detects early metabolic changes, precise, reproducible.
What are the limitations of biochemical methods?
Time-consuming, expensive, requires trained personnel.
Why is clinical assessment essential in nutritional surveys?
It is practical and simple, focusing on specific physical signs.
What physical signs are examined in clinical assessment?
Hair, mouth, gums, nails, skin, eyes, bones, thyroid gland.
What are the advantages of clinical assessment?
Fast, inexpensive, non-invasive.
What are the limitations of clinical assessment?
Misses early cases, lacks specificity, relies on subjective signs.
Mention two clinical signs of hair malnutrition.
Sparse, brittle hair or colour changes.
Identify clinical signs of iodine deficiency.
Goitre in mountainous regions far from the sea.
What are the five dietary assessment methods?
24-hour recall, FFQ, dietary history, food diary, observed consumption.
Describe the 24-hour dietary recall method.
A recall of all food/drink taken in the last 24 hours.
What is a food frequency questionnaire (FFQ)?
A list of 100 food items with frequency of intake.
What are the merits of FFQs?
Inexpensive, more representative.
State the limitations of FFQs.
Long, needs updating for new foods.
What is the dietary history method?
Accurate details on intake, frequency, and timing.
Explain the food diary technique.
Records intake at the time of consumption for 1-7 days.
What is observed food consumption?
Measures meal weight and calculates content accurately.
Differentiate between qualitative and quantitative dietary data interpretation.
Qualitative: food groups; Quantitative: nutrient amounts.
What ecological variables are considered in indirect nutritional assessment?
Crop production, food balance sheets, conditioning influences.
List economic factors used in indirect nutritional assessment.
Income, population density, social habits.
Mention two vital health statistics relevant to nutritional assessment.
Infant mortality rate, under-5 mortality.
Why is crop production data important in nutritional surveys?
It reflects food availability and malnutrition risks.
How do socio-economic factors influence food consumption?
Income, education, and occupation determine diet patterns.
What does morbidity data reveal in nutritional assessments?
Identifies risk groups and malnutrition causes.
What is the relationship between life expectancy and nutritional status?
Poor nutritional status lowers life expectancy.
Why is indirect assessment important for nutritional surveys?
It measures the underlying causes of malnutrition.
What are conditioning influences in ecological variables?
Factors like infections that exacerbate malnutrition.
Define per capita income in the context of nutrition.
Average income per person in a population.
What is the role of food composition tables in dietary data interpretation?
They calculate nutrients in food to compare to RDAs.
