Vitamin A deficiency among Brazilian school-aged children in a healthy child service
| Autor: | Rodrigo José Custódio, Rubens Garcia Ricco, Carlos Eduardo Martinelli, L A Del Ciampo, Helio Vannucchi, Júlio César Daneluzzi, S E Hering, Viviane Imaculada do Carmo Custodio, Ivan Savioli Ferraz, Palmira Cupo, Mônica S. S. Meirelles |
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| Rok vydání: | 2007 |
| Předmět: |
Male
Pediatrics medicine.medical_specialty Anemia Population Medicine (miscellaneous) Xerophthalmia Prevalence medicine Humans Risk factor Child Vitamin A education education.field_of_study Nutrition and Dietetics Vitamin A Deficiency business.industry Incidence (epidemiology) Vitamins medicine.disease Confidence interval Vitamin A deficiency Malnutrition Child Preschool Female business Brazil |
| Zdroj: | European Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 63:485-490 |
| ISSN: | 1476-5640 0954-3007 |
| Popis: | Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) is a world public health problem contributing to the increase in childhood morbidity and mortality in developing countries and severe deficiency of vitamin A may lead to xerophthalmia and blindness. The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of VAD among Brazilian school-aged children attended at a primary health unit and to verify if some considered risk factor was associated with VAD in this group.A descriptive prospective transverse study was conducted on 103 randomly selected children. A total of 54 boys and 49 girls aged 5.5-11 years had the relative dose-response (RDR) test performed on. Possible ocular alterations related to vitamin A and the status of anemia, serum zinc, some acute-phase proteins, and anthropometric situation were determinate by an analytic design.No child presented xerophthalmia. Serum retinol values lower than 1.05 and 0.7 micromol l(-1), respectively were found in 26.2 and 5.8% of the children. The prevalence of hypovitaminosis detected by RDR test was 20.4%. The following variables and their relationship with VAD were evaluated: sex (P=0.33; 95% confidence interval 0.61-4.34), weight and height (Por =0.5), hemoglobin (P=0.15), C-reactive protein (P=0.56; 95% confidence interval 0.75-18.26), alpha-1-acid-glycoprotein (P=0.56; 95% confidence interval 0.15-15.42) and serum zinc (P=0.31). None of these variables was related to VAD.In this population, the prevalence of VAD detected could be considered a public health problem. School-aged children can be considered at risk for VAD mainly of a subclinical level, even without some associated risk factors. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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