Coverage of MUAC Screening

The indicator measures the proportion of children screened in a given period by the trained volunteers (or other responsible personnel) for the prevalence of acute malnutrition (by measuring their mid-upper arm circumference, MUAC). The higher proportion of children is screened (and referred for treatment, if required), the higher proportion of undernourished children the treatment programs can identify and treat.

Determine the indicator's value by using the following methodology:

1) Collect from the responsible volunteers in all the target villages the number of children screened during the last round of screening.

2) Divide the number by the total number of children aged 6 – 59 months living in the villages where the screening took place. Multiply the result by 100 to convert it to a percentage. 

3) The result is the percentage of children screened for MUAC.

Disaggregate the data by gender and specific vulnerable groups, such as minorities.

1) Use this indicator only if:

i) you have reliable and up-to-date statistics on the number of children aged 6-59 months living in the area where your screening system operates

ii) the screening is done within a clearly defined period that does not overlap with other screening (i.e. there is a low risk of double counting)

iii) you trust the data provided by health volunteers who conduct screening (for example, your supervisors randomly visit houses to check whether children were screened by the volunteers)

Otherwise, you are likely to get unreliable data.

2) "Trained volunteer" means that the volunteer passed a knowledge and skills based performance test on measuring MUAC (i.e. is able to measure and record MUAC correctly).

3) This indicator relies on an accurate age assessment. Since people often do not remember the exact dates of their children’s birth, the data collectors should always verify the child’s age. This can be done by reviewing the child’s birth certificate, vaccination card or another document; however, since many caregivers do not have such documents (and since they can include mistakes), it is essential that your data collectors are able to verify the child’s age by using local events calendars. Read FAO’s Guidelines (see below) to learn how to prepare local events calendars and how to train data collectors in their correct use.