Prevalence and influence factors of vitamin A deficiency of Chinese pregnant women

Abstract

BackgroundVitamin A plays an important role in the periods of rapid cellular growth and differentiation, especially during pregnancy, which is supplied by the mother to the fetus. The aim of this study is to assess the prevalence and potential influence factors of prenatal VAD of Chinese pregnant women.MethodsChina National Nutrition and Health Survey 2010–2013(CHNNS2010–2013) is a nationally representative cross-sectional study. It involved the random selection of 150 districts (urban) or counties (rural). Each site randomly selected 30 pregnant women. Because volume of blood and incomplete data was taken into consideration,the final sample was formed by 1209 participants. Serum retinol concentrations were measured by high performance liquid chromatography. Characteristics of the pregnant women were collected by a questionnaire. Comparing retinol level across categories of independent variables was tested by the Mann-Whitney U test. Logistic and linear regression analyses were used to identify influence factors of Chinese pregnant women.ResultsThe mean serum retinol level of the pregnant women was 1.63 μmol/L (95 % CI 1.60–1.67) and 64[5.3 % (95 % CI 4.03–6.56)] had VAD. The odds of VAD were significantly higher among the pregnant women in the poor rural areas and without college or university education and low- income. Pregnant women in the second and third trimester had 2.40 (95 % CI 1.05–5.46) and 2.82 (95 % CI 1.34–5.93) times increased odds of VAD compared with those in the first trimester respectively. Pregnant women of drinker had 3.10(1.65–5.81) times increased odds of VAD compared with those no drinker. Pregnant smokers had 5.68 (95 % CI 2.23–14.49) times higher odds of VAD compared with pregnant with non-smoker without passive smoking.ConclusionsVAD is of mild public-health issue in Chinese pregnant women. Such as : in the poor rural areas and without received college or university education and low- income and advanced gestational age and unhealthy lifestyles of pregnant women such as smoking and drinking. These were pertinent influence factors of VAD.

The Prevalence of Vitamin A Deficiency and Associated Factors in Pregnant Women Receiving Prenatal Care at a Reference Maternity Hospital in Northeastern Brazil

“…The findings reported here are similar to those found in China, where a frequency of VAD of 5.2% was found in a group of 1209 pregnant women evaluated in 150 urban or rural areas between 2013 and 2014 [30]. Compared to the present findings, other studies conducted in developing countries using the cut-off point of <0.70 μmol/L reported much higher prevalence rates of VAD in pregnant women: 24.6% in 3270 pregnant women in Iran [31], 20% in a sample of 80 women in Egypt [32], 18.5% in 200 women in Bangladesh [33], 15.8% in 101 women in Nigeria [34], 13.8% in 738 women in Guinea-Bissau [35], and 10.6% in 160 pregnant adolescents in Venezuela [18].…”

“…Schooling, which has been identified as an important differentiating factor in the results of other surveys on nutrition [30,39,40], was also found to be significantly associated with VAD in the univariate analysis in the present study. Consequently, the prevalence of VAD in the group of women with more than 12 years of schooling was lower.…”

“…Bearing in mind the similarity in the results of the nationwide biochemical survey on the prevalence of VAD conducted in China [30] and the results of the present study, it is important to mention the improvement in the various indicators of life conditions in the population. In fact, Brazil has had one of the fastest processes of nutrition transition in the world, leading the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations to remove the country from the World Hunger Map.…”

“…Other studies have shown similar results, reporting vitamin A deficiency to be more common at the end of pregnancy than at the beginning [18,30,31,35,37,52]. These findings could be explained by the increase in the maternal-fetal transfer of vitamin A due to faster fetal growth towards the end of pregnancy [53].…”

Maternal Supplementation with <em>RRR</em>-&alpha;-Tocopherol (400 IU) and Its Relationship with Serum and Breast Milk Retinol

“…However, the baseline serum retinol levels of the study control and supplemented groups were higher than those found in India [31], Africa, [32,33], and Ethiopia [34] as these countries have high prevalence of vitamin A deficiency, and in Germany [35], probably because of the very different sample size. On the other hand, Yang et al [36] reported a higher level of serum retinol possibly because of different diets of the two samples and sampling methods.…”