Abstract:
Nutrition screening and assessment initiate the nutrition care process
of individuals and groups and are also core in nutrition monitoring and
evaluation. Anthropometry is an objective nutritional assessment
method, and, in the case of infants and children, growth monitoring is
also a sensitive indicator of health status. Most quantitative nutrition
research studies involving nutritional status include a description of
the subjects’ weight and height. Among the advantages associated
with weight and height are the universal use, ease of taking the
measurements as well as availability and low cost of the necessary
equipment. On the other hand, two publications in this issue argue
that in different South African settings height measurement poses
challenges, thereby justifying an analysis of the accuracy of available
height estimation equations from segment lengths. In both cases the
authors raise doubts about the performance of the equations tested.
