Comparative Study Of Vitamin A And Anthropometric Status Of Children Aged 6-24 Months In Urban And Rural Communities In Kaduna State, Nigeria.

ABSTRACT

This invest igat ion centered on Vi tamin A and anthropomet r ic status of 400

children aged 6-24 months in urban and rural communi t ies in Kaduna South

local government area, Nigeria. Select ion of chi ldren was through systemat ic

sampl ing technique. Two hundred children from each communi ty, ninety four

males (94) and one hundred and six (106) females from Makera (urban) and

ninety three males (93) and one hundred and seven (107) females from

Kinkinau ( rural) communi t ies completed the study. A st ructured quest ionnaire

was used to collect informat ion on maternal socioeconomic characteristics,

l iving condi t ions, heal th care, and 24-hour dietary recal l . Knowledge,

at t i tude and pract ice of heal thy l ife style and Vi tamin A supplementation

were assessed using focus group discussion. The anthropometric status of the

children were measured longi tudinal ly for 6 months wi th wooden length

board, and UNICEF weighing scale. Serum ret inol levels of a subsample of

100 subjects were determined. Blood samples were col lected by venipuncture

to obtain serum for measurement of retinol concentrat ion using high

performance l iquid chromatography. The data was analyzed using

anthropomet ric z scores and categorized using WHO Anthro sof tware (2007).

Comparison was done using Chi square test for categorical variables and

ANOVA and t-test for cont inuous variables. Al l statistical analysis were done

using SPSS version 15 and signif icance judged at p

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