Serum vitamin A among Yugur children aged seven to twelve in China

Objective To study the level of vitamin A among Yugur children aged 7-12 years.Methods One hundred and eighty-four children aged 7-12 years were sampled from urban and rural areas Yugur ethnic region in Sunan county,Gansu province.The serum vitamin A level was detected using the fluorescence method.Results The average level of vitamin A in serum was 1.44μmol/L for the children.The level for children in urban area was 1.53 μmol/L,significantly higher than that of children in rural area(1.30μmol/L).Of all the children,there was no vitamin A deficiency(VAD) observed.But there were 20 cases of subclinic vitamin A deficiency(SVAD)(10.87%,8 boys and 12 girls,10 from the urban and 10 from the rural),and 31 cases of suspicious SVAD(16.85%,14 boys and 17 girls,19 from the urban and 12 from the rural).There was no statistically significant difference in the prevalence of VAD and SVAD between different genders and regions.Conclusion The prevalence of VAD in school-aged children was not observed.But there still exits SVAD in the Yugur region and the intervention of vitamin A supplementation should be implemented among the children suffering from SVAD and suspicious SVAD.