Prevalence of vitamin A deficiency and its determinants among the rural pre-school children of Madhya Pradesh, India
| Autor: | V. Vikas Rao, N. Balakrishna, Avula Laxmaiah, Nimmathota Arlappa, Pullakhandam Raghu, G. N. V. Brahmam, K. Madhavan Nair |
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| Rok vydání: | 2010 |
| Předmět: |
Male
Vitamin Aging medicine.medical_specialty National Health Programs Physiology Epidemiology Population India Rural Health chemistry.chemical_compound Night Blindness parasitic diseases Prevalence Genetics Humans Medicine Vitamin A education Health Education Socioeconomic status education.field_of_study Blindness Vitamin A Deficiency business.industry Public health Public Health Environmental and Occupational Health Infant Bitot's spots Nutrition Surveys medicine.disease Dried blood spot Vitamin A deficiency Cross-Sectional Studies Socioeconomic Factors chemistry Child Preschool Female medicine.symptom business Demography |
| Zdroj: | Annals of Human Biology. 38:131-136 |
| ISSN: | 1464-5033 0301-4460 |
| Popis: | Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) continues to be a major public health nutritional problem in India, even though the National Vitamin A Prophylaxis Programme has been in operation for more than three decades.To assess the prevalence of vitamin A deficiency among rural pre-school children.A community-based cross-sectional study was carried out in rural Madhya Pradesh. A total of 8777 pre-school children were clinically examined for VAD and blood vitamin A levels were estimated in a sub-sample by dried blood spot method.Prevalence of night blindness and Bitot's spot, an objective sign of VAD, was 0.8% and 1.4%, respectively, and prevalence increased significantly (p0.001) with age. The proportion of children with blood vitamin A deficiency (20 μg/dL) was 88% (95% CI: 84.8-91.2).The prevalence of Bitot's spot was significantly (p0.001) higher among children of lower socio-economic communities, 3-5-year age group and those of illiterate mothers.VAD is a major public health problem among rural children of Madhya Pradesh. Children of 3-5 years and those belonging to lower socio-economic communities are at high risk of VAD. Therefore, appropriate intervention measures are to be initiated to improve the vitamin A status of children. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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