Call for experiences on mothers measuring MUAC
News
Are you using the mothers measuring mid upper arm circumference (MUAC) approach or do you know someone who is? If so, we want to hear from you!
Action Against Hunger, in partnership with ALIMA, is compiling a lessons-learned document detailing the use of this approach worldwide, building on the existing evidence (Alé et al, 2016) and guidance (ALIMA, 2016). Evidence from Niger has shown that caregivers are able successfully to measure MUAC and are not inferior to community health workers (CHW), with children being admitted to care earlier and requiring fewer hospitalisations. Additionally, this approach has been shown to cost less to implement than the traditional CHW-led approach.
Since this evidence has been published, multiple implementers have adopted it worldwide. We would like to collect all the experiences to date from different contexts: how the evidence has been implemented, what works, and the challenges, supported by case studies. This will be used to guide others on how to implement the approach and overcome any associated challenges.
If you can contribute to this or know anyone who can, please contact Eleanor Rogers at e.rogers@actionagainsthunger.org.uk by November 15 2016.
ALIMA (2016). Mother-MUAC. Teaching mothers to screen for malnutrition. Guidelines for training of trainers. ALIMA. Available in English (alima-ngo.org/empowering-mothers-prevent-malnutrition) and French (alima-ngo.org/fr/les-meres-meilleur-atout-pour-prevenir-la-malnutrition).
Alé et al (2016). Franck GB Alé, Kevin P.Q. Phelan, Hassan Issa, Isabelle Defourny, Guillaume Le Duc, Geza Harczi, Kader Issaley, Sani Sayadi, Nassirou Ousmane, Issoufou Yahaya, Mark Myatt, André Briend, Thierry Allafort-Duverger, Susan Shepherd and Nikki Blackwell/ Mothers screening for malnutrition by mid-upper arm circumference is non-inferior to community health workers: results from a large-scale pragmatic trial in rural Niger. Archives of Public Health (2016) 74:38. archpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13690-016-0149-5