Vitamin A status of children in Sri Lanka.

A representative country-wide rural nutrition status survey determined the extent and distribution of vitamin A deficiency in Sri Lanka in children 6 through 71 months of age. Trained paramedical personnel recorded the presence or absence ofselected ophthahnological signs and symptoms associated with vitamin A deficiency in 13,450 children. The results of the country- wide clinical survey indicate that a vitamin A deficiency problem of public health importance may exist in two of 15 health areas. Serum vitamin A levels were determined on 346 survey children from two of 15 health areas and compared with clinical findings for these areas. The lowest mean serum vitamin A, 26.3 �ag/l00 ml, occurred in children with clinical eye findings. A high prevalence ofdlinical eye fmdings, 34%, and the low mean serum vitamin A value, 28.2 �zg/l00 ml, were found in the group of chronically undernourished children-children who are less than 90% of their expected height for age. The survey results enabled planned redirection of the distribution of vitamin A capsules to preschool children in Sri Lanka to areas shown to have the highest prevalences of ophthalmological signs and symptoms and/or the highest prevalence of chronic undernutrition. Am. I. Clin. Nuir. 32: 84-91, 1979.