Gernaat and Voorhoeve reported a modified Wellcome classification for pediatric malnutrition. The authors are from the Regional Institute of Community Mental Health Care and Erasmus University in The Netherlands.
Patient selection: children less than 5 years of age in a developing country
Outcome: type of protein-energy malnutrition (PEM)
Problem with the Wellcome classification of PEM: weight for age depends on an accurate knowledge of the child's age
Parameters:
(1) z score for weight for height
(2) edema
Z score, Weight for Height
Edema
Diagnosis
> -2
absent
not acute PEM
present
kwashiorkor
<= -2
absent
marasmus
present
marasmic kwashiorkor
where:
• Kwashiorkor may mean "red boy" (for red colored hair) or "deposed" (displaced from mother's breast by a sibling).
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