Nigerian Journal of Paediatrics (Jun 2024)
Estimation of Age in Childhood using the Armspan
Abstract
Summary:Decades ago, in the absence of date of birth, any child who was able to touch the earlobe on the opposite side of the body by carrying the arm over the highest part of the head. was deemed old enough to start school. In order to verify this screening test, 567 children from two randomly selected schools in an urban, inner city community were enrolled into the study Weight and armspan measurements were obtained. Results showed that the test had a high specificity of 95.5 percent and was able to exclude most of the children who were not yet six years old. As age increased, specificity was reduced and sensitivity increased. By the age of nine years, all the children were able to touch the ear. Furtherinore, armspan was found to be highly correlated with chronological age (R<0.90). Using this method, undernour ished children were at a disadvantage, as they had shorter arinspans than well-nourished chil dren of the same age; consequently, the age at which they were allowed school entry was likely to be delayed. For accurate age determination, registration of children at birth should be made mandatory
