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...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Wirth, James P., Petry, Nicolai, Tanumihardjo, Sherry A., Rogers, Lisa M., McLean, Erin, Greig, Alison, Garrett, Greg S., Klemm, Rolf D. W., Rohner, Fabian
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VAS, but amidst the debate, researchers acknowledge that the majority of nationally-representative data on VA status is outdated.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