Abstract
Vitamin A has several important functions such as preventing childhood blindness and strengthening the immune system against common diseases in children. The purpose of the present work was to assess the nutritional intake of vitamin A in oasis school-age children. A cross-sectional survey was carried out among children enrolled in public primary education establishments. 4244 school-aged children were randomly selected to take part in the study. Data on dietary vitamin A intake was assessed by the 24-hour dietary recall. Socio-economic characteristics were got using an appropriate questionnaire. Over the entire sample, the median vitamin A intake was around 409.3 μg for girls and 294.5 μg for boys. The prevalence of insufficient vitamin A intake was observed in 58.3%. The prevalence of inadequate intake according to socio-demographic and economic characteristics shows girls tend to develop vitamin A deficiency compared to boys. Children from urban areas show significant percentages of inadequacy. School-aged children with illiterate parents with low monthly income were identified as at risk of having insufficient dietary intake of vitamin A. In conclusion, we have revealed an important level of inadequacy for vitamin A in the overall processed results that must be considered.
Highlights
Vitamin A or retinol is a fat-soluble vitamin that belongs to a group of retinoid including retinol, retinal, and retinyl esters [1,2]
Median intakes of vitamin A according to socioeconomic characteristics in children were shown in table 2
Vitamin A intake was high in children over 13 years old
Summary
Vitamin A or retinol is a fat-soluble vitamin that belongs to a group of retinoid including retinol, retinal, and retinyl esters [1,2]. According to the World Health Organization, 190 million preschool-aged children and 19.1 million pregnant women around the world have a serum retinol concentration below to 0.70 micromoles/L [6] It is infrequently found in developed countries, but it is common in developing countries, especially in children and pregnant women with low-income and living in Africa or South-East Asia. It is a priority in health strategy in order to improve preformed vitamin A and/or provitamin A carotenoid status among these categories of the population. In order to fill this gap, the current study helps to assess the vitamin A intake among school-aged children in both urban and rural areas of Draa-Tafilalet oasis regions, southeastern of Morocco
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