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 various nutritional states, as determined by anthropometric measures and to find out the usefulness of an age-independent anthropometric index in determining 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 the study. Intervention: Age and anthropometric measures of weight, height,mid upper arm circumference (MUAC), subscapular (SS) and triceps, were taken. Blood and hair samples were taken for analyses. Results: Vitamin A nutritional status was adequate and the community was not a vitamin A-deficient society. Out of a total of 200 preschool children screened, 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 adequate 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 hair zinc. There was a significant correlation between serum vitamin A and plasma zinc levels (r=0.517), hair zinc and plasma zinc (r=0.613) in the various nutritional states and between serum vitamin A and plasma zinc (r=0.903) in the various age groups of the children, There was also very high linear 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 zinc in the children of various ages. The use of anthropometric measures without age is limited, since such an index cannot differentiate between cohorts of normal status and those stunted and between children wasted and those both wasted and stunted.