Vitamin A status among women and chidren
The available data show that vitamin A deficiency appears to be a marginal problem among children and mothers in the dry savannah zone and the northwest of Nigeria.
- Data from the NFCNS on vitamin A status of children under 5, mothers and pregnant women show that at the national level, 24.8% suffered from marginal deficiency and 4.7% suffered from severe deficiency. Therefore just under 30% were suffering from vitamin A deficiency.
- Deficiencies were highest in the dry savannah (31.3%). Marginal and severe deficiencies were similar in rural and urban areas. Akinyele (2009) analyzed vitamin A status from the NFCNS by geopolitical zone and found that in the NW zone, 3% of under fives had clinical deficiency and 32% had marginal status.
- In adults, mothers with a serum retinol concentration of <30ug/dl were considered as being at risk of vitamin A deficiency, and these were 13.1% of the national sample. At the zonal level the highest prevalence of mothers at risk was in the dry savannah at 19.5%. Mothers with serum retinol concentration of <20 ug were considered as being vitamin A deficient: nationally these were 4.1% of the population.
- Identical standards of deficiency were used for pregnant women: on this basis 19.2% were at risk of deficiency at the national level (being highest in the dry savannah (34.3%)) and 8.8% nationally were regarded as being vitamin A deficient.