M-Health for Improving Screening Accuracy of Acute Malnutrition in a Community-Based Management of Acute Malnutrition Program in Mumbai Informal Settlements:

Background:Acute malnutrition is linked to child mortality and morbidity. Community-Based Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) programs can be instrumental in large-scale detection and treatment of undernutrition. The World Health Organization (WHO) 2006 weight-for-height/length tables are diagnostic tools available to screen for acute malnutrition. Frontline workers (FWs) in a CMAM program in Dharavi, Mumbai, were using CommCare, a mobile application, for monitoring and case management of children in combination with the paper-based WHO simplified tables. A strategy was undertaken to digitize the WHO tables into the CommCare application.Objective:To measure differences in diagnostic accuracy in community-based screening for acute malnutrition, by FWs, using a mobile-based solution.Methods:Twenty-seven FWs initially used the paper-based tables and then switched to an updated mobile application that included a nutritional grade calculator. Human error rates specifically associated with grade classificat...