Vitamin A deficiency in healthy children aged 6-71 months in eastern Turkey.

Abstract

Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) is the leading case of preventable blindness in children and increases the risk of disease and death from infections such as diarrhoea and measles. A series of studies have revealed that subclinical VAD has important consequences in developing countries in terms of child mortality and morbidity. VAD is primarily a problem of children aged between 6 months and 6 years. There is little information about VAD in Turkey generally and none in eastern Turkey. A study was undertaken to determine the prevalence of VAD in children in eastern Turkey. The study was a cross-sectional community-based survey. Using a cluster sampling method 232 children were selected from an urban and a rural area of Erzurum. The children were aged between 6 and 71 months and were assessed in July 2000. Informed consent was obtained from parents and from The Ethics Committee of Ataturk University. Serum retinol levels were measured by high-performance liquid chromatography. Serum retinol <20 µg/dl was considered low. (excerpt)