Background:The mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) to assess children nutritional status under 5 years of age, has been used since late fi fties. Methods:The study was conducted to assess the accuracy in classifying the nutritional status of children under 5 years of age using the new CIMDER tapes compared to the new standard MUAC tape S0145620, distributed by UNICEF, taking weight-for-age as gold-standard from WHO multicenter study.Results. Results:The new CIMDER tapes developed for boys and girls in different age groups, yielded better results than the new standard MUAC tape for all accuracy indicators used.Conclusions: These results warrant that the new CIMDER tapes can be used for screening nutritional status in children under 5 years of age with improved accuracy compared to the standard MUAC tape.New CIMDER tapes also screen for overweight, but the standard MUAC tape does not.