Around 50 per cent of children were suffering from mild to moderate Vitamin A deficiency across the country, revealed the latest National Micronutrient Survey- 2019-2020.
Around 43.7 per cent of children have mild and 7.2 per cent have moderate Vitamin A deficiency, stated the survey conducted by National Nutrition Services (NNS) of the Institute of Public Health Nutrition (IPHN) in partnership with the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b).
Principal investigator of the study Dr Aliya Naheed, Scientist of Health Systems and Population Studies Division at icddr,b presented the data during a dissemination programme, recently.
Earlier, a similar study was conducted in 2011-2012 that found 0.5% of the children suffering from severe Vitamin A deficiency but the latest study found no children with severe deficiency.
Micronutrients are vitamins and minerals that the human body needs in small quantities but their effects are crucial and chronic shortage of any of them can cause severe illnesses potentially. Micronutrients provide the body with the ability to manufacture enzymes, hormones, and other substances required for appropriate growth and development.
According to the study, the prevalence of Vitamin A deficiency among children aged less than 5 is 50.9 per cent which is 16.9 per cent lower than the first study of 2012.
The deficiency is higher among boys compared to girls and among children aged between 6 to 23 months compared to children of 24 to 59 months. The proportion of deficiency varied across the divisions, but not across urban and rural areas.
Besides, at least one-three of the children have zinc deficiencies in Bangladesh and every fifth child has a deficiency of Vitamin D, or Iodine or suffers from anaemia, which warrants strengthening the supplementation programme of multiple micronutrients among children.
The study that was conducted on non-pregnant and non-lactating women, found that Vitamin D deficiency is highly prevalent in women and 7 out of 10 women suffer from Vitamin D deficiency. A substantial deficiency of Iodine and folate and anaemia has been found in every third woman of reproductive age.
The study also found 20.2 per cent of Vitamin B12 deficiency in non-pregnant, non-lactating (NPNL) women which is 2.8 per cent low compared to the previous study.
Additionally, 21 per cent of children and 29 per cent of NPNL women have mild to severe anaemia, stated the current survey.
Almost 61 per cent of women do not meet the minimum dietary diversity with a higher proportion in rural than urban areas. But Overall 28.8 per cent of children aged between 6 to 23 months are fed appropriately according to the infant and young child feeding (IYCF) recommendation, which was proportionally higher in urban than rural areas.
Dr Aliya said that “The study seeks urgent attention of the policymakers and the programme managers for introducing Vitamin D supplementation in the national programme.”
It also suggested further investigations to identify the risk factors -- substantial deficiency of Iodine and folate and anaemia -- in order to design better nutrition programmes, especially targeting younger women, she said.
The study has provided a new direction for the policymakers to design the next-generation nutrition programmes in the 5th health sector programme in Bangladesh, Dr Aliya said.
Additional secretary (Public Health Wing) of Health Services Division of the Health Ministry Syed Mojibul Huq was the chief guest of the programme where Director of DGHS Line Director (NNS) Dr Mustafizur Rahman, Dr Tahmeed Ahmed, Executive Director of icddr,b, Professor Dr Shah Monir Hossain, Former Director General of DGHS were present, among others.
