Millions of children worldwide are malnourished. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals call for an end of all forms of malnutrition by 2030. Tracking progress toward global nutrition goals, characterizing nutritional status and overall well-being within and between countries, and measuring responses to public health interventions are all based on country-level estimates—this makes the collection and use of high-quality anthropometry data of vital importance.
Actions can be taken to promote the collection of accurate and precise anthropometric data in surveys and enhance the ability to interpret these results. This is especially important in low- and middle-income countries where survey conditions include insecure environments, hard-to-reach populations, and more recently, challenges introduced by the COVID-19 pandemic.
During this webinar speakers presented on collecting and reporting anthropometric data in population-based household surveys, the collection of anthropometric data in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, and measures used to assess data quality. Speakers came together from multilaterals, government agencies, and academia to share their experiences with developing guidelines and supporting anthropometric data collection.
Webinar Recording
Webinar Resources
- Access the slide deck (PDF, 4.5 MB)
- View webinar transcript (PDF, 268 KB)
Speakers
Monica Woldt (moderator), Senior Technical Advisor, USAID Advancing Nutrition
Peter Aka, Biomarker Specialist, The DHS Program
Julia Krasevec, Statistics and Monitoring Specialist, Nutrition, UNICEF Division of Data, Analytics, Planning and Monitoring
Eva Leidman, Humanitarian Response Epidemiologist, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention COVID-19 Response – International Task Force, Emergency Response and Recovery Branch, Division of Global Health Protection
Nandita Perumal, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Department of Global Health and Population
Useful Links
- Anthropometric Data Quality Assessment in Multisurvey Studies of Child Growth
- Best Practices for Quality Anthropometric Data Collection at The DHS Program
- TEAM: Recommendations for Data Collection, Analysis and Reporting on Anthropometric Indicators in Children Under 5 Years Old
- SMART: Interim Guidance on Restarting Population Level Surveys and Household Level Data Collection in Humanitarian Situations During COVID-19 Pandemic
- Meeting Report: Anthropometric Data in Population-Based Surveys