Hi. I am doing a systematic review on nutrition of under 5s. I want to compare malnutrition prevalence data from different studies that use different reference populations (WHO 2006, CDC 2000, NCHS 1977 and Harvard reference) as well as compare data reported as prevalence (%) < -2Z scores and % < 80% of the Harvard median. My aim is to synthesize prevalence data from all studies into one comparable standard, ie % < -2Z-score using the WHO 2006 standard.
I know that the ENA software compares data using NCHS and WHO reference populations.
Firstly, I want to know how to compare data that use the CDC or Harvard references (or are the reference populations similar enough to the NCHS reference to assume equivalence and use the conversion from NCHS to WHO)
Secondly, I want to know if I can assume that prevalence reported as % < -2Z-scores is roughly equivalent to % < 80% of the Harvard median.
Thirdly, how can I use ENA as a statistical calculator to compare population prevalence using the above variables without inputting a whole database of individual anthropometric results as I don’t have access to the raw data?
Any comments would be greatly appreciated. Peter McGlynn
