TY - JOUR
T1 - Vitamin A deficiency and xerophthalmia among school-aged children in Southeastern Asia
AU - Singh, V.
AU - West, K. P.
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank Parul Christian for sharing early, unpublished tables on vitamin A deficiency in India. This study was funded by Cooperative Agreement No. HRN-A-00-97-00015-00 between the Office of Health and Nutrition, US Agency for International Development (USAID), Washington, DC, USA and the Center for Human Nutrition, Department of International Health, The Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA with additional support from The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Seattle, WA, USA and the Sight and Life Research Institute, Baltimore, MD, USA.
PY - 2004/10
Y1 - 2004/10
N2 - Objective: To determine provisional estimates of the extent of vitamin A (VA) deficiency and xerophthalmia among school-aged children. Design: Literature search of published, unpublished and website-based population survey and study reports, with country-specific imputation of prevalence rates and numbers of children affected by: (1) VA deficiency based on measured or imputed distributions of serum retinol concentration <0.70 μmol/l (equivalent to <20 μg/dl) and (2) xerophthalmia, by country. Setting: Countries within the WHO South-East Asian Region. Subjects: The target group for estimation was children 5-15 y of age. Interventions: None. Results: The estimated prevalence of VA deficiency is 23.4%, suggesting that there are ∼83 million VA-deficient school-aged children in the region, of whom 10.9% (9 million, at an overall prevalence of 2.6%) have mild xerophthalmia (night blindness or Bitot's spot). Potentially blinding corneal xerophthalmia appears to be negligible at this age. Conclusions: VA deficiency, including mild xerophthalmia, appears to affect large numbers of school-aged children in South-East Asia. However, nationally representative data on the prevalence, risk factors and health consequences of VA deficiency among school-aged children are lacking within the region and globally, representing a future public health research priority.
AB - Objective: To determine provisional estimates of the extent of vitamin A (VA) deficiency and xerophthalmia among school-aged children. Design: Literature search of published, unpublished and website-based population survey and study reports, with country-specific imputation of prevalence rates and numbers of children affected by: (1) VA deficiency based on measured or imputed distributions of serum retinol concentration <0.70 μmol/l (equivalent to <20 μg/dl) and (2) xerophthalmia, by country. Setting: Countries within the WHO South-East Asian Region. Subjects: The target group for estimation was children 5-15 y of age. Interventions: None. Results: The estimated prevalence of VA deficiency is 23.4%, suggesting that there are ∼83 million VA-deficient school-aged children in the region, of whom 10.9% (9 million, at an overall prevalence of 2.6%) have mild xerophthalmia (night blindness or Bitot's spot). Potentially blinding corneal xerophthalmia appears to be negligible at this age. Conclusions: VA deficiency, including mild xerophthalmia, appears to affect large numbers of school-aged children in South-East Asia. However, nationally representative data on the prevalence, risk factors and health consequences of VA deficiency among school-aged children are lacking within the region and globally, representing a future public health research priority.
KW - Bitot's spots
KW - Night blindness
KW - School-aged children
KW - South-East Asia
KW - Vitamin A deficiency
KW - Xerophthalmia
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U2 - 10.1038/sj.ejcn.1601973
DO - 10.1038/sj.ejcn.1601973
M3 - Article
C2 - 15054414
AN - SCOPUS:5744234955
SN - 0954-3007
VL - 58
SP - 1342
EP - 1349
JO - European Journal of Clinical Nutrition
JF - European Journal of Clinical Nutrition
IS - 10
ER -