Plasma zinc levels, anthropometric and socio-demographic characteristics of school children in eastern Nepal

BMC Research Notes

Nirmal Baral¹  Paras Kumar Pokharel²  Madhab Lamsal¹  Kisundeo Mehta¹  Basanta Gelal¹  Ashwini Kumar Nepal¹ 

[1] Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, B.P. Koirala Institute of Health Sciences, Dharan, Nepal;Department of Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, B.P. Koirala Institute of Health Sciences, Dharan, Nepal

关键词: Nepal;    Anthropometry;    Zinc deficiency;    Plasma zinc levels;   

Others  :  1134930
DOI  :  10.1186/1756-0500-7-18

 received in 2013-07-16, accepted in 2014-01-07,  发布年份 2014

【 摘 要 】

Background

Zinc deficiency is a major public health problem in many developing countries including Nepal. The present study was designed to assess the prevalence of zinc deficiency and to study the association of zinc deficiency with anthropometric and socio-demographic variables, in school children of eastern Nepal.

Methods

This cross-sectional study included total 125 school children of age group 6–12 years from Sunsari and Dhankuta districts of eastern Nepal. Plasma zinc level was estimated by Flame Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy.

Results

The Median interquartile range (IQR) values of zinc in the two districts Sunsari and Dhankuta were 5.9 (4.4, 7.9) μmol/L and 5.8 (4.3, 8.4) μmol/L respectively. A total of 55 children (87.3%) in Sunsari and 52 (83.9%) in Dhankuta had zinc deficiency, no significant difference was observed in the Median (IQR) plasma zinc levels (p = 0.9) and zinc deficiency patterns (p = 0.3) of the two districts. Significant differences were observed in the plasma zinc levels (p = 0.02) and zinc deficiency patterns (p = 0.001), of the school children having age groups 6–8 years than in 9–10 and 11–12 years of age, and zinc deficiency patterns between male and female school children (p = 0.04) respectively.

Conclusions

The present study showed higher prevalence of zinc deficiency among school children in eastern Nepal. In our study, zinc deficiency was associated with both sex and age. The findings from the present study will help to populate data for policy implementation regarding consumption and supplementation of zinc.

【 授权许可】

   
2014 Nepal et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

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