Wasting

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Wasting is also useless spending.

In medical circles, wasting refers to the process by which a debilitating disease causes muscle and fat tissue to "waste" away. Wasting is sometimes referred to as "acute malnutrition" because it is believed that episodes of wasting have a short duration, in contrast to stunting, which is regarded as chronic malnutrition.

1 Causes
2 Classification
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] Causes

Wasting can be caused by an extremely low energy intake (e.g., caused by famine), nutrient losses due to infection, or a combination of low intake and high loss. Infections associated with wasting include tuberculosis, chronic diarrhea, and AIDS. The mecanism may involve cachectin - also called tumor necrosis factor, a macrophage-secreted cytokine. Caretakers and health providers sometimes contribute to wasting by putting the patient on a very restrictive diet. Voluntary weight loss and eating disorders are excluded as causes of wasting.

[edit] Classification

Children: Weight-for-height (WFH). In infants under 24 months, recumbent (supine) length is used. WFH as % of median reference value is calculated this way:

              weight of a given child
 WFH = ---------------------------------------- x 100
       median weight for a child of that height

Cutoff points may vary, but <80% (close to -2 Z-score) is often used.

Adults:
- Body Mass Index (BMI) is the quotient between weight and height squared (kg/m²). An individual with a BMI < 18.5 is regarded as a case of wasting.
- Percent of body weight lost (At Tufts, an unintentional loss of 6% or more in 6 months is regarded as wasting)