Diagnostic performance of mid-upper arm circumference to identify overweight and obesity in children and adolescents: a protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

IntroductionMid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) has been suggested as an alternative screening tool to identify overweight and obesity in children and adolescents. Several studies have examined the diagnostic performance of MUAC to identify overweight and obesity in children and adolescents. However, the existing literature shows a considerable variability in measures of diagnostic performance and hence makes it difficult to direct clinical and public health practice. Therefore, this systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to synthesise evidence on the performance of MUAC to identify overweight and obesity in children and adolescents.Methods and analysisA systematic search of databases including PubMed, EMBASE, SCOPUS, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Cochrane CENTRAL, Web of Science, CINAHL and PsycINFO will be conducted. The search will cover all studies until 1 April 2021. Grey literature will also be retrieved from Google Scholar. Titles and abstracts will be screened by two independent reviewers. The Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies 2 tool will be used to assess the risk of bias and clinical applicability of each study. To assess possible publication bias, we will use Deeks’ funnel plot. We will investigate the sources of heterogeneity by visual inspection of the paired forest plots and summary receiver operating characteristic plots. The pooled summary statistics for the area under the curve, sensitivities, specificities, likelihood ratios and diagnostic ORs with 95% CI will be reported.Ethics and disseminationThe underlying study is based on published articles thus does not require ethical approval. The findings of the systematic review and meta-analysis will be published in a peer-reviewed journal and disseminated in different scientific conferences and seminars.PROSPERO registration numberCRD42020183148.

The performance of mid-upper arm circumference for identifying children and adolescents with overweight and obesity: a systematic review and meta-analysis

“…This systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted per the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses for Diagnostic Test (PRISMA-DTA) statement (see online supplementary material, Supplemental Table S1) (27) . The protocol of this systematic review and meta-analysis was registered on PROSPERO (Registration number CRD42020183148) and published (28) ; minor deviations from the original protocol have also been explained (see online supplementary material, Supplemental Table S2).…”

Mid upper arm circumference as screening tool of overweight or obesity among adult employees of Mizan Tepi University, Southwest Ethiopia

“…It was stated that measurement of height and weight for BMI assessment were difficult to perform on patients who had a difficulty of standing [ 18 ]. Moreover, BMI requires relatively expensive equipment and it is less practical especially in resource-limited areas [ 19 ]. Due to this reason, identifying less expensive and more practical tool that can be used in alternative to BMI is very important [ 20 ].…”