Correlation between vitamin A and zinc levels in Ghanaian pre-school children

Objectives: To asses the vitamin A and zinc nutritional status of preschool children and determine if there was any correlation between them in the va rious nutritional states, as determined by anthropometric measures and to f ind out the usefulness of an age-independent anthropometric index in determ ining the nutritional status of preschool children. Design: Prospective, investigative and comparative study. Setting: The study was carried out in a rural southern village of Ghana, Subjects: Two hundred preschool children (2.5-6 years) were enrolled into t he study. Intervention: Age and anthropometric measures of weight, height,mid upper a rm circumference (MUAC), subscapular (SS) and triceps, were taken. Blood an d hair samples were taken for analyses. Results: Vitamin A nutritional status was adequate and the community was no t a vitamin A-deficient society. Out of a total of 200 preschool children s creened, four per cent (8/200) had deficient level of <10 mu g/dL; 17% (34/ 200)had low (marginal) level of 10-20 mu g/dL, while 78% (156/200) had adeq uate status of 20-50 mu g/dL and 1% (2/200) had high level of >50 mu g/dL. The zinc nutritional status was also adequate, both in terms of serum and h air zinc. There was a significant correlation between serum vitamin A and p lasma zinc levels (r=0.517), hair zinc and plasma zinc (r=0.613) in the var ious nutritional states and between serum vitamin A and plasma zinc (r=0.90 3) in the various age groups of the children, There was also very high line ar correlation (r=0.781-0.977) among the various anthropometric indices, Conclusion : Vitamin A and zinc nutritional status were adequate and there was a high and linear correlation (r=0.903) between vitamin A and plasma zi nc in the children of various ages. The use of anthropometric measures with out age is limited, since such an index cannot differentiate between cohort s of normal status and those stunted and between children wasted and those both wasted and stunted.