The tallstick: a tool for community-based assessment of nutritional stunting

Abstract

A new, simplified anthropometric field tool for detecting nutritional stunting, the "tallstick', has been developed in community-based pilot programmes in Nicaragua and Nigeria. The folding stick, marked to indicate height-for-age cut-off points for ages from birth to seven years below which the child is considered nutritionally stunted, is compared with arm-circumference measurements as a simplified field tool. The importance of detecting stunting, the likelihood of reducing stunting rates, and the feasibilty of using the tallstick and its variants are discussed. -from Authors