Use of body mass index (BMI) to assess the nutritional status of adolescents requires many resources, especially for country-level assessment. This study aimed to determine the relationship between BMI and mid upper arm circumference (MUAC) among adolescent males and females in India and to examine whether MUAC effectively represents the nutritional status of adolescents. The study utilized anthropometric measurement data collected by India’s National Family Health Survey-4 (2015–16). The weighted sample for analysis included 91,315 female and 14,893 male adolescents. The BMI and MUAC measurements showed a positive correlation in both female and male adolescents. Using BMI-for-age Z-score classifications, 12.7% of the adolescents were undernourished. Using MUAC (in cm) as per NACS (Nutrition Assessment, Counselling, and Support) guidelines and Mramba et al. (2017) classified 22.9% and 3.7% of the adolescents as undernourished respectively. Finally, using the MUAC-for-age Z-score classification, 98.4% of adolescents were determined to be normal and 1.7% undernourished. Sensitivity and specificity tests of the MUAC cut-offs, in comparison with BMI cut-offs, showed that all three MUAC cut-off classifications had high specificity (NACS cut-off: 81.3%; Mramba et al. cut-off (cm): 97.7%; Mramba et al. cut-off (Z-score): 99.1%). The NACS cut-off had moderately high sensitivity (52.2%) but the Mramba et al. cut-offs had low sensitivity (13.3% for the centimetre cut-off and 6.6% for the Z-score cut-off). Sensitivity and specificity tests proved the relationship between BMI and MUAC, and that MUAC represents adolescent nutritional status with considerable efficiency. With further research, it may be established that MUAC is a better and promising measure of adolescent nutrition, having the advantage of needing fewer resources for data collection. The MUAC has the potential to offer a simple and low-resource alternative to BMI to assess nutritional status among adolescents in poor countries.

使用体重指数 (BMI) 来评估青少年的营养状况需要很多资源，尤其是在国家层面的评估中。本研究旨在确定印度青少年男性和女性的 BMI 与中上臂围 (MUAC) 之间的关系，并检查 MUAC 是否有效地代表了青少年的营养状况。该研究利用了印度全国家庭健康调查第四次（2015-16 年）收集的人体测量数据。用于分析的加权样本包括 91,315 名女性和 14,893 名男性青少年。BMI 和 MUAC 测量值在女性和男性青少年中均显示出正相关。使用 BMI-for-age Z- 分数分类，12.7% 的青少年营养不良。根据 NACS（营养评估、咨询和支持）指南和 Mramba等人使用 MUAC（以厘米为单位）。(2017) 分别将 22.9% 和 3.7% 的青少年归为营养不良。最后，使用 MUAC-for-age Z评分分类，98.4% 的青少年被确定为正常，1.7% 的青少年营养不良。与 BMI 临界值相比，MUAC 临界值的敏感性和特异性测试表明，所有三种 MUAC 临界值分类都具有高特异性（NACS 临界值：81.3%；Mramba等人临界值(cm) : 97.7%; Mramba et al. cut-off ( Z-分数）：99.1%）。NACS 截止值具有中等高灵敏度（52.2%），但 Mramba等人。截止值的灵敏度较低（厘米截止值为 13.3%，Z值截止值为 6.6%）。敏感性和特异性测试证明了 BMI 和 MUAC 之间的关系，并且 MUAC 可以相当有效地代表青少年的营养状况。随着进一步的研究，可以确定 MUAC 是一种更好且有前途的青少年营养测量方法，其优点是需要更少的资源来收集数据。MUAC 有可能为 BMI 提供一种简单且资源匮乏的替代方案，以评估贫困国家青少年的营养状况。