Nutritional Status and Blood Count
Capillary hemoglobin (Hgb) concentration
was measured with a Hemocue
testing kit (Quest Diagnostics, Lake
Forest, CA). Anemia was defined as
Hgb ,11.0 g/dL, the lowest Hgb cutoff
for anemia in children.11 Height/
length and weight were measured as
routine components of the medical
examination. For children ,5 years old,
we used Epi Info NutStat (CDC, Atlanta,
GA) to calculate the World Health
Organization (WHO) weight-for-height
z scores (WHZ) as a measure of moderate
or severe acute malnutrition, and
height-for-age z scores (HAZ) as a measure
of moderate or severe chronic
malnutrition. We limited anthropometric
analysis to children ,5 years, based
on WHO population standards for malnutrition.12