Anthropometric cut-off points for diagnosis of malnutrition: are they applicable in developing countries? A study in healthy African adults, North-East Nigeria.

Anthropometric evaluations of the upper limb were performed on 614 healthy African adults who were employees of two hospitals in Maiduguri, North-East Nigeria. Measurements were related to reference standards of Jelliffe (1966) and to centiles derived from the United States Health and Nutrition examination survey of 1971 to 1974. A large proportion of subjects, particularly men, fell below the 5th centile and 90 per cent of the Jelliffe reference. These cutoff points, which are often taken to indicate nutritional depletion in developed countries, cannot be used as similar nutritional indicators in this part of Africa.