The value of mid-upper arm circumference for malnutrition screening in pediatric celiac disease

Background. Malnutrition rates in pediatric celiac disease (CD) patients range from 20.2% to 67.3%. Objectives. To investigate the prevalence of malnutrition in pediatric CD patients in Turkey using different anthropometric measurements, including mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC). Materials and methods. This prospective study included 124 patients aged 1-18 years with a diagnosis of CD, admitted to the Pediatric Gastroenterology Outpatient Clinic of Adana City Training and Research Hospital, Turkey. The anthropometric measurements, including weight-for-age (WFA) Z-score, height-forage (HFA) Z-score, body mass index (BMI)-for-age Z-score, MUAC [cm], and MUAC Z-score were calculated. Results. The study analyzed 75 female (60.5%) and 49 male (39.5%) patients with a mean age of 9.83 +/- 4.1 years. While 44 patients (35.5%) had malnutrition according to their BMI Z-scores, 60 patients (48.4%) had malnutrition based on their MUAC Z-scores. The number of patients with stunting (HFA value below -2) was 24 (19.4%), and the WFA value was below -2 in 27 (21.8%) patients. Furthermore, the BMI Z-score failed to identify chronic malnutrition in 70.9% of patients. There was a positive linear correlation (r = 0.396) between the BMI value and the MUAC value (p < 0.001). However, the degree of agreement between the BMI Z-scores and MUAC Z-scores was weak (kappa: 0.300). Conclusions. The MUAC Z-score successfully detected acute and chronic malnutrition and should be included in standard anthropometric measurements at follow-up nutritional assessments in CD patients.