Vitamin A deficiency in school children of the rural area in Minas Gerais, Brazil

• Autor(a) principal: Aparecida SANTOS, Margarete
• Data de Publicação: 2023
• Outros Autores: Garcia REZENDE, Eliane, Alves LAMOUNIER, Joel, Moreira GALVÃO, Márcio Antônio, BONOMO, Élido, Cerqueira LEITE, Romário
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Revista de Nutrição
• Texto Completo: https://periodicos.puc-campinas.edu.br/nutricao/article/view/9834
• topic: causality; Vitamin A deficiency; school children; causalidade; hipovitaminose A; escolares

ObjectiveThe objective of this study was to verify the occurrence of vitamin A deficiency in school children of the ruralarea of Novo Cruzeiro, Minas Gerais, Brazil, as well as to identify the possible predisposing factors for suchoccurrence.MethodsThe sample comprised 241 school children, ranging from 6 to 14 years of age, from four rural schools of theregion. The serum levels of retinol were interpreted by the criteria of the Interdepartmental Committee onNutrition National Defense. The epidemiological significance of the vitamin A deficiency was evaluated accordingto the World Health Organization criteria. As predisposing factors for vitamin A deficiency, the followingconditions were considered: intestinal parasitism, protein-energy malnutrition, inadequate ingestion of vitaminA food sources, and per capita family income. Statistical analysis was carried out using Chi-square test.ResultsVitamin A deficiency was identified in 29.0% of the subjects, 23.2% of the children presented stunting, and8.7% were malnourished, according to the body mass index. In 63.1% of the subjects, inadequate ingestionof retinol sources was verified, while 78.8% of the subjects presented some type of intestinal parasite. Mostschool-children families (87.1%) had per capita monthly incomes bellow ¼ of the minimum wage; the rest ofthe families were situated respectively in the ranges: (10.4%)>¼ to ≤½ minimum wage; (2.1%) >½ to ≤1minimum wage; and ( 0.4 %) >1 minimum wage.ConclusionVitamin A deficiency among school children was found to be a public health problem in the studied area.Nonetheless, no significant statistic association between vitamin A deficiency and the factors selected aspredisposing ones was observed.