Coursework Critical Analysis Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Critical Analysis - Coursework Example This is due to rapid increase in refugee numbers and interference with relief supply routes. This has resulted in malnutrition in the camp that is threatening to reach critical levels. Obviously the methods mentioned above are best applied to children below the age of 12. It is quite ambitious to target the entire population with anthropometric measurements but this is not the best approach. First of all, the method is quite disruptive and is akin to bring all the activities in the camp to a halt as the entire population is targeted. Taking samples of the children will live adults especially en, to go on with their lives as best they can. Secondly, children are a good indicator of the levels of malnutrition since they are usually the worst affected exhibiting symptoms that are not very manifest in adults as they have not fully developed immunity to basic health problems. For instance, adults have stores of body protein in the labile amino acid pool which is primarily used as energy when the individual is starving. Such storage is very minimal or nonexistent in children (Rowett, 2010). It is inevitable that anthropometric methods will need to be employed to determine how acute the situation is for government interventions. Given the situation, the most effective measurement that can be used is the Middle-Upper Arm Circumference [Muac] to establish the level of malnutrition in the camp (Mother Child Nutrition, 2010). Using other methods such as the Body Mass Index (BMI); which estimate nutritional health by calculating the body weight of an individual divided by the square of his height; is not reliable in this case since it is limited to adults. The method is not directly applied to children since they are still growing and have thus not attained their full height. As indicated earlier, children are usually the most affected by malnutrition in any given population hence this method would leave them out