Environmental conditions, health behavior, and mortality in siblings as risk indicators of night blindness

The northern part of Bangladesh is a high-risk area for night blindness. 5420 children from 2101 households in that part of the country were enrolled in a cross-sectional study conducted to determine the association of water and sanitation breast feeding practice and vaccination and mortality among siblings with night blindness. 124 children were reported by parents to have night blindness. The study found environmental factors health behavior and the death of siblings to be significantly associated with the occurrence of night blindness in crude analyses as well as in analyses adjusted for a number of potential confounding variables. The strongest association was noted for sibling death. These findings support the rationale for not regarding night blindness as an isolated health problem. Moreover approaches followed to improve vitamin A status should include interventions directed to environmental and health-associated behavioral factors.