Status of vitamin A among students from rural areas in Guizhou Province 2014-2016

Objective To understand the intake of dietary vitamin A in primary and secondary school students from areas benefited from China's Nutrition Improvement Programme for Rural Compulsory Education Students in Guizhou Province.Methods The multi-stage stratified random cluster sampling was carried out in Dejiang and Puding areas,which have benefited from Improvement Programme in Guizhou Province from 2014 to 2016.Vitamin A level among children in primary and secondary schools were assessed by high performance liquid chromatography method.Results The deficiency rates of vitamin A was 3.05%,4.44% and 0.42% in the year 2014,2015 and 2016,respectively;and the subclinical deficiency rates was 44.5%,48.2% and 20.0%,respectively.Vitamin A deficiency and subclinical vitamin A deficiency showed no differences by sex.Primary school students had higher prevalence in vitamin A deficiency and subclinical vitamin A deficiency than middle school students.Primary and secondary school students in Dejiang area had higher prevalence of vitamin A deficiency and subclinical vitamin A deficiency than Pudding students.Conclusion Through implementing the Nutrition Improvement Programme for Rural Compulsory Education Students,significant improvement in vitamin A level among primary and middle school students in Guizhou Province is found in 2016 compared with 2014 and 2015.The deficiency rate of vitamin A in primary school students was higher than that of middle school students.Students in Pudding areas has better vitamin A level than students in Dejiang area.