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.