Factors associated with plasma n-3 and n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acid levels in Tanzanian infants

New Perspectives on the Associations between Blood Fatty Acids, Growth Parameters, and Cognitive Development in Global Child Populations

“…Our observations do not fully support prior evidence which shows that gross national income is significantly correlated to higher ARA and DHA intake [55] and that LMIC populations are at an increased risk of underconsumption of important dietary FAs [56,57]. For instance, Tanzanian infants and children had DGLA and DPA n-6 levels higher than those in European and Colombian children [34,45,49,51,53,54], and South African and Ghanian children had higher levels of ARA than children from the United Kingdom, Norway, and Colombia [34,[45][46][47]52,58]. In fact, southern Ghanian children had higher DHA levels than many of the HIC child populations observed [34,45,47,49,51].…”

“…Consequently, LMIC child populations had the highest level of a number of fatty acids. LA levels were the highest among Ugandan children aged 6-10 years (mean (SD): 36.8 (0.35)% total FA) [32,33], DGLA and DPAn-6 levels were highest among 3-9-month-old Gambian children (DGLA: 19.1 (6.49) ng/uL; DPAn-6: 3.32 (1.24) ng/uL)) [53], and DTA levels were highest among 0-5-year-old Pakistani children (median (IQR): 3.05 (2.13-3.85)% total FA) [31]. Lastly, DPAn-3 levels were highest among Gambian children aged 3-9 months (mean (SD): 11.9 (3.82) ng/uL) [38].…”