Vitamin A deficiency among Moroccan women and children

Background: Vitamin A deficiency (VAD), attributable to an inadequate food intake, constitutes a problem in developing countries. The determination of plasma vitamin A (VA) is a reliable method for assessing VA status of the population. In this context, high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) has become the method of choice for VA analysis. Objectives: We describe the VAD profile of Moroccan children and women, obtained by specific HPLC analysis of VA. Subjects and Methods: The study involved 2457 participants: 1453 children and 1004 women from different areas of Morocco. Vitamin A was assessed by HPLC. Validation was conducted by comparison of the analysis of VA achieved in two laboratories. Results: The prevalence of VAD in children (n = 1453) was 40.4% [37.8% - 43.0%] against 10.9 % [8.4% - 14.1%] of women in the Gharb (n = 494) and 6.3 % [4.4% - 8.8%] in women of Doukkala (n = 510). The VA distribution of the children was low compared to distributions among women. Children had significantly lower VA levels (0.773 ± 0.252 µmol/l) than women of Gharb (1.17 ± 0.43 µmol/l) and women of Doukkala (1.308 ± 0.453 µmol/l). Analytical performance was good: the reproducibility and recovery rates were respectively 1.97 % and 98.7 ± 3.1 %. The comparison of the mean VA and the cases of VAD obtained by the two laboratories showed no significant difference. Conclusion: Vitamin A deficiency is severe among children and moderate among women. The absence of the stratum having comfortable averages in vitamina A (plasma VA>3.49µmol/l) indicates likely inadequate alimentary habits for a suitable vitamin A intake. The use of HPLC analysis of vitamin A, on a large scale for the first time in Morocco, has demonstrated that vitamin A deficiency is a public health problem. The recycling of mobile phase has reduced the costs of HPLC. This analytical method is useful in the evaluation of intervention programs against vitamin A deficiency and in future epidemiological studies. African Health Sciences 2004; 4(1): 3-