MUAC

I told you people ... the acronyms are FLYING!!!  

Today's entire day focused on nutrition and livelihood.  When aid relievers are out in the field they need to have tools that are easy to use, easy to transport and above all can give an accurate measurement over and over and over again.  MUAC, Mid-Upper Arm Circumference, is a tool that helps to aid workers determine nutrition status.

On the outside of the band are four colors - red, orange, yellow and green.  Each color corresponds to a person's nutritional status and can be used in children and adults.  As you can probably ascertain, green would indicate that a person is well nourished and the red indicates if someone is severely malnourished.

Another tool which can be used is the height to weight chart where a person's weight should fall within a certain range for their height.  One of the down falls to this chart is when a person becomes severely malnourished.  Due to a variety of pathophysiological events, low levels of albumin cause edema or swelling, especially around the abdomen area (that is the SUPER watered down explanation) and is one of the reasons why severely malnourished children have large abdomens.  As a fun fact this condition is also found in people with severe liver disease.  Now back to the original point.  All of the extra swelling would skew the height/weight chart and could put someone in a "higher nourished" category for lack of a better term.