Annual assessment of the vitamin A and nutritional status of children during two cross-sectional surveys.

The changes in the vitamin A and nutritional status of children from a rural area in Senegal were determined by the same team during two cross-sectional surveys distant from exactly one year. At baseline (T = 0 year) 1,259 children were chosen at random. One year later (T = 1 year), 1,008 children were re-examined. Vitamin A and nutritional status were assessed by clinical and cytological methods, and by anthropometrical indicators for the 1,008 participants, respectively. No signs of xerophthalmia were recorded at T = 0 and T = 1 year. The proportions of children deficient in vitamin A as defined by abnormal cytology and suffering from stunting were similar at these two measuring points. Even though these percentages remained similar at T = 0 and T = 1 year, there existed little movement between the abnormal and normal eye cytology group and the stunted and non-stunted group. Since vitamin A is required for normal growth, we calculated the mean linear gain in height according to the eye cytological changes assessed between the two examinations. We found that mean linear growth increments were higher in the groups of children who remained abnormal or reverted to abnormal cytology than in those who remained normal or reverted to normal cytology.