FAO's development of the Adult Male Equivalent (AME) Concept

FAO's development of the
Adult Male Equivalent (AME) Concept
Robert Weisell & Marie-Claude Dop
Nutrition and Consumer Protection Division
Food & Agriculture Organization of the UN

Definition of
Adult Male Equivalent (AME)
The energy requirement of a household
or another food consumption unit
expressed as a multiple of an adult male’s
energy requirement.

Questions or Issued addressed
Why is the AME advocated ?
• To improve the analysis of HHFC&E
surveys;

Questions or Issued addressed
Why not just use per capita
consumption?
• HH members consume food in an attempt
to meet their energy requirements which
is largely dependent on body size and
physical activity;
• However, HH members vary in body size
and level of physical expenditure.

Issues addressed
• Calculation of AME;
• Examine the minimum type or level of
data or information to determine the
AME.

Review of Energy Requirements:
most recent FAO/WHO Joint Expert
Consultations
• 1971 Expert Consultation (1973 Report)
• 1981 Expert Consultation (1985 Report)
• 2001 Expert Consultation (2004 Report)

• 1973 Report:
Principle Concepts
– intake approach (a circular argument)
– reference man and reference woman
• 1985 Report:
– Food intake => requirements for children

Principle Concepts
2004 Report:
– requirements based on energy expenditure;
– socially desirable activities but considering
varying levels of habitual physical activity;
– exercise for cardiovascular well-being and
muscular fitness;
– more sophisticated calculation of energy
needs during pregnancy and lactation.

2004 Report Factorial method
• based on Total Energy Expenditure (TEE)
• Adults (>18 yr) Two major components of TEE:
basal metabolic rate (BMR)
physical activity
• based on the duration of the different daily
activities and related energy expenditure values.
• use of the integrated energy index (IEI)
energy expenditure of an activity with pauses and
expressed as a multiple BMR; = to PAL value

Physical Activity Level (PAL)
Total Energy Expenditure (TEE)
When expressed as a multiple of BMR over
24 hours = PAL
Thus BMR X PAL = TEE
1,600 kcal X 1.75 = 2,800 kcal

Development and calculation
of the Adult Male Equivalent

Surveys using the AME (1)
Madagascar – 1962, national rural, 5000 HH
Brazil – 1970-75, nationwide, 55,000 families
(IBGE - Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estadïstica)
Peru - late 1970s

Surveys using the AME (2)
Tunisia – 1974-75, national HH budget and
food consumption, 2,510 HHs
Côte d’Ivoire – 1979, national food consump
and expend, 720 rural & 1440 urban HHs
Cape Verde – 2001-2002, national FC & HH
expenditure, 4550 HHs

The reason for FAO conducting
surveys
• In the 1960’s FAO conducted the
“Indicative World Plan”;
• Paucity of data on HH food consumption;
• FAO advocated suggested appending food
consumption data collection to the
household expenditure and budget surveys.

Two critical issues in calculating HH
requirement
1. Attendance at meals (including guests),
number of meals and where meals were
consumed if not at home.
2. Determination of each participant’s
energy requirement and then weighting it
compared to a typical adult male.

Problems/issues:
To recap:
• Absences due to that person not eating or
eating outside;
• Guests at the meal;
• Differences in the meal patterns among
members: number and which meals);
• For any one person the difference in the
meal pattern from week to week.

Example of a 4 HH members + a guest
• HH Member Sex Age Ref Wgt/Hgt
• Head HH Male 45 64
• Spouse Female 37 55
• Daughter Female 12 44
• Son Male 3 16
• Adult Guest Male Unknown 64

Effect of meal attendance on HH Req.
Day 1
Cons Unit
Members Breakfast Lunch Snack Dinner wgt of
at Meal 0.16 0.43 0.11 0.30 meal attd
Head HH 0.16 0.11 0.30 0.57
Spouse 0.16 0.43 0.30 0.89
Daughter 0.16 0.43 0.11 0.30 1.00
Son 0.16 0.43 0.11 0.30 1.00
Guest 0.30 0.30
Total CU* 3.76
* number of CUs is used to express intake per capita

Effect of meal attendance and AME
on daily energy requirement
Day 1 AME Consumer AME Daily Req
Members Units Wgt. by X meal
at Meal meal attd. attend.
Head HH 1.000 0.57 0.57 1,604
Spouse 0.806 0.89 0.72 2,018
Daughter 0.810 1.00 0.81 2,278
Son 0.444 1.00 0.44 1,249
Guest 1.000 0.30 0.30 844
Total 3.76 2.84 7,992
2,126 kcal 2,813 kcal

intake from hypo HH and in Cape
Verde survey
Per cap
Per AME
Hypothetical
Family
Mean - Cape
Verde Survey
2126 2813
1918 2619