Mid-Upper Arm Circumference Tapes and Measurement Discrepancies: Time to Standardize Product Specifications and Reporting

In recent years, community-based management of acute malnutrition (CMAM) has revolutionized the care for children by increasing treatment coverage. Critical to the success of CMAM is early case identification. Mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) measurement is a widely used, practical anthropometric measure used at the community level for the identification and admission of cases to appropriate treatment services. Globally, many organizations and government services use MUAC tapes for early case detection. However, there is no one universal MUAC tape specification, and it has been observed that using different MUAC tapes results in different measurements. In this article, we aim to: (1) present the measurement discrepancies; (2) discuss design specifications and their effect on case identification and admissions; (3) present a call to action to agree on common design specifications and standardized reporting. We hope this article will catalyze discussion and practical actions among nutrition and health stakeholders to ensure we have common MUAC tape design specifications so that all eligible at-risk children will get an equal chance to be identified early for critical treatment.