Vitamin A status in Cuban children aged 6–11 years

Public Health Nutrition

Pedro Monterrey-Gutiérrez¹  José Reboso-Pérez¹  Consuelo Macías-Matos¹  Gisela Pita-Rodríguez¹ 

关键词: Vitamin A;    Retinol;    Cuba;    Children;    Status;    Food sources;   

DOI  :  10.1017/S1368980007000201

学科分类：卫生学

来源: Cambridge University Press

【 摘 要 】

Objective and settingA nationwide study was performed in Cuba to assess vitamin A status and theintake of vitamin-A-providing foods in children aged 6–11years.Design and subjectsThe sample comprised 1191 schoolchildren from first to sixth grade, bothsexes, from municipalities randomly selected from the five eastern provincesof Cuba in 2002 (first semester) and from the four western and four centralprovinces in 2003 (first semester). A food-frequency questionnaire wascompleted by 2038 mother-and-child pairs.ResultsMean (±standard deviation) plasma retinol concentrations were 1.77± 0.48 μmol l−1 in the western,2.01 ± 0.56 μmol l−1 in thecentral and 1.40 ± 0.41 μmol l−1in the eastern region. No child had plasma retinol concentration below 0.35μmol l−1, indicative of a high risk ofclinical deficiency. Subclinical deficiency, plasma retinol concentration of0.35–0.7 μmol l−1, was seen in90% of subjects inall western and central provinces, and in one of the eastern provinces(Holguín), whereas in the four remaining eastern provinces,adequate status was present in >75%. Only nine fruits andvegetables were consumed frequently (>3 times per week) by>50% of children. Thirty-seven per cent regularly consumed asupplement containing vitamin A.ConclusionsMost Cuban children aged 6–11 years had adequate vitamin A status.Consumption of foods rich in vitamin and provitamin A, especiallyvegetables, was frequent but limited to a small variety of foods.

【 授权许可】

Unknown