Prevalence of Ferritin, Folate and Vitamin B12 Deficiencies Amongst Children in 5–18 years of Age in Delhi

Abstract

To the Editor: National Family Health Survey (NFHS-3)documented the prevalence of anemia as 76.4 % amongstchildren. Studies have documented iron, folate and vitaminB12 to be the causes of nutritional anemia. However there islimited data on prevalence of iron, folate and vitamin B12deficiencies amongst children in India. We would like toreport results of a sub study undertaken, in a large surveydata set, amongst children of 5–18 y in National CapitalTerritory of Delhi, which has been published earlier.A total of 1037 children in the age group of 5–18 y wereincluded in the present study. The study was approved byethical committee of All India Institute of Medical Sciences.Blood was drawn and transported to the central laborato-ry at All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi forseparation of serum. Serum ferritin was determined by theenzyme linked immune-sorbent assay (ELISA) method [1].The levels less than 12 ng/mL were considered as indicativeof iron deficiency. Serum folate was determined by theRadio-immuno assay (RIA) method. The levels less than3 ng/mL were considered as indicative of folic acid defi-ciency [2]. Serum B12 was estimated utilizing the radioisotopic. The levels less than 200 pg/mL were consideredas indicative of cobalamin deficiency [3].Prevalence of ferritin, folate and B12 deficiencies wereobserved to be 54.5 %, 42.0 % and 67.2 % for children inthe age group of 5–11 y, and 55.0 %, 30.7 % and 68.3 % forchildren in the age group of 12–18 y, respectively.An earlier community based study documented that 88 %of the children below 6 y had low serum ferritin levels [4].Similarly, the prevalence of folate deficiency as 50 % andcobalamin deficiency as 62 % has been reported earlier [5].The present study revealed that there was a high preva-lence of deficiency of iron, folate and B12 amongst childrenin the age group of 5–18 y.References