Effects of age misstatement on the utility of age-dependent anthropometric indicators of nutritional status in rural Bangladesh

We report the effects of age error on use of weight-for-age and height-for-age for assessing and screening malnutrition, and for identifying factors of malnutrition in 679 children aged 22-59 months in Companiganj, in rural Bangladesh. Overreporting and random error in age and correlation of age error with each of the anthropometric indices are observed. As a result, the proportion of children having less than or equal to 60 per cent of median weight-for-age is overestimated by five percentage points and the proportion having less than 80 per cent of median height-for-age is overestimated by six points. Loss in sensitivity (proportion of malnourished children correctly identified) for the above cutoff points is 20 per cent for weight-for-age and 28 per cent for height-for-age, compared to the situation in the absence of age error. Although mother's education is not a significant determinant of weight-for-age and height-for-age, age error makes mother's education appear artifactually significant in the analysis of variance.