Tag: Gomez classification

Globally, millions of children suffer from some form of undernutrition, with nearly 149 million under five estimated to be stunted in 2022. A less severe but critical concern is first degree malnutrition, the earliest stage of nutritional deficiency that requires timely intervention to prevent more serious health problems.

According to UNICEF, 149 million children under five were estimated to be stunted, and 45 million were wasted in 2022, highlighting the global scale of childhood malnutrition. Accurately assessing malnutrition is critical for effective treatment, and two historical methods used for this purpose are the Gomez and Waterlow classifications.

The Gomez scale, one of the earliest systems for classifying malnutrition, was developed in 1956 by doctors in Mexico to assess the nutritional status and correlate it with the mortality risk of children. It is a simple, weight-for-age calculation that categorizes a child's health based on their percentage of the median weight for their age.

Worldwide, it is estimated that millions of children under the age of five are affected by some form of undernutrition. Properly determining how to classify protein-calorie malnutrition (PCM) is the first critical step in developing an effective treatment plan and is vital for public health surveillance.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), nearly half of all deaths in children under five are linked to undernutrition. This grim statistic underscores the vital importance of identifying and classifying the severity, as in **what are the 3 degrees of malnutrition**.