Cargando…
Vitamin A Supplementation Programs and Country-Level Evidence of Vitamin A Deficiency
Vitamin A supplementation (VAS) programs targeted at children aged 6–59 months are implemented in many countries. By improving immune function, vitamin A (VA) reduces mortality associated with measles, diarrhea, and other illnesses. There is currently a debate regarding the relevance of VAS, but ami...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
MDPI
2017
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5372853/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28245571 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nu9030190 |
_version_ | 1782518703922872320 |
---|---|
author | Wirth, James P. Petry, Nicolai Tanumihardjo, Sherry A. Rogers, Lisa M. McLean, Erin Greig, Alison Garrett, Greg S. Klemm, Rolf D. W. Rohner, Fabian |
author_facet | Wirth, James P. Petry, Nicolai Tanumihardjo, Sherry A. Rogers, Lisa M. McLean, Erin Greig, Alison Garrett, Greg S. Klemm, Rolf D. W. Rohner, Fabian |
author_sort | Wirth, James P. |
collection | PubMed |
description | Vitamin A supplementation (VAS) programs targeted at children aged 6–59 months are implemented in many countries. By improving immune function, vitamin A (VA) reduces mortality associated with measles, diarrhea, and other illnesses. There is currently a debate regarding the relevance of VAS, but amidst the debate, researchers acknowledge that the majority of nationally-representative data on VA status is outdated. To address this data gap and contribute to the debate, we examined data from 82 countries implementing VAS programs, identified other VA programs, and assessed the recentness of national VA deficiency (VAD) data. We found that two-thirds of the countries explored either have no VAD data or data that were >10 years old (i.e., measured before 2006), which included twenty countries with VAS coverage ≥70%. Fifty-one VAS programs were implemented in parallel with at least one other VA intervention, and of these, 27 countries either had no VAD data or data collected in 2005 or earlier. To fill these gaps in VAD data, countries implementing VAS and other VA interventions should measure VA status in children at least every 10 years. At the same time, the coverage of VA interventions can also be measured. We identified three countries that have scaled down VAS, but given the lack of VA deficiency data, this would be a premature undertaking in most countries without appropriate status assessment. While the global debate about VAS is important, more attention should be directed towards individual countries where programmatic decisions are made. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-5372853 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2017 |
publisher | MDPI |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-53728532017-04-05 Vitamin A Supplementation Programs and Country-Level Evidence of Vitamin A Deficiency Wirth, James P. Petry, Nicolai Tanumihardjo, Sherry A. Rogers, Lisa M. McLean, Erin Greig, Alison Garrett, Greg S. Klemm, Rolf D. W. Rohner, Fabian Nutrients Review Vitamin A supplementation (VAS) programs targeted at children aged 6–59 months are implemented in many countries. By improving immune function, vitamin A (VA) reduces mortality associated with measles, diarrhea, and other illnesses. There is currently a debate regarding the relevance of VAS, but amidst the debate, researchers acknowledge that the majority of nationally-representative data on VA status is outdated. To address this data gap and contribute to the debate, we examined data from 82 countries implementing VAS programs, identified other VA programs, and assessed the recentness of national VA deficiency (VAD) data. We found that two-thirds of the countries explored either have no VAD data or data that were >10 years old (i.e., measured before 2006), which included twenty countries with VAS coverage ≥70%. Fifty-one VAS programs were implemented in parallel with at least one other VA intervention, and of these, 27 countries either had no VAD data or data collected in 2005 or earlier. To fill these gaps in VAD data, countries implementing VAS and other VA interventions should measure VA status in children at least every 10 years. At the same time, the coverage of VA interventions can also be measured. We identified three countries that have scaled down VAS, but given the lack of VA deficiency data, this would be a premature undertaking in most countries without appropriate status assessment. While the global debate about VAS is important, more attention should be directed towards individual countries where programmatic decisions are made. MDPI 2017-02-24 /pmc/articles/PMC5372853/ /pubmed/28245571 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nu9030190 Text en © 2017 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
spellingShingle | Review Wirth, James P. Petry, Nicolai Tanumihardjo, Sherry A. Rogers, Lisa M. McLean, Erin Greig, Alison Garrett, Greg S. Klemm, Rolf D. W. Rohner, Fabian Vitamin A Supplementation Programs and Country-Level Evidence of Vitamin A Deficiency |
title | Vitamin A Supplementation Programs and Country-Level Evidence of Vitamin A Deficiency |
title_full | Vitamin A Supplementation Programs and Country-Level Evidence of Vitamin A Deficiency |
title_fullStr | Vitamin A Supplementation Programs and Country-Level Evidence of Vitamin A Deficiency |
title_full_unstemmed | Vitamin A Supplementation Programs and Country-Level Evidence of Vitamin A Deficiency |
title_short | Vitamin A Supplementation Programs and Country-Level Evidence of Vitamin A Deficiency |
title_sort | vitamin a supplementation programs and country-level evidence of vitamin a deficiency |
topic | Review |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5372853/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28245571 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nu9030190 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT wirthjamesp vitaminasupplementationprogramsandcountrylevelevidenceofvitaminadeficiency AT petrynicolai vitaminasupplementationprogramsandcountrylevelevidenceofvitaminadeficiency AT tanumihardjosherrya vitaminasupplementationprogramsandcountrylevelevidenceofvitaminadeficiency AT rogerslisam vitaminasupplementationprogramsandcountrylevelevidenceofvitaminadeficiency AT mcleanerin vitaminasupplementationprogramsandcountrylevelevidenceofvitaminadeficiency AT greigalison vitaminasupplementationprogramsandcountrylevelevidenceofvitaminadeficiency AT garrettgregs vitaminasupplementationprogramsandcountrylevelevidenceofvitaminadeficiency AT klemmrolfdw vitaminasupplementationprogramsandcountrylevelevidenceofvitaminadeficiency AT rohnerfabian vitaminasupplementationprogramsandcountrylevelevidenceofvitaminadeficiency |