Tamang Man Kumar, Yadav Uday Narayan, Acharya Anish, Lamsal Madhab
Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, Central Campus of Technology, Dharan, Sunsari, Nepal.
Forum for Health Research and Development, Dharan, Sunsari, Nepal.
J Nepal Health Res Counc. 2020 Jan 21;17(4):468-473. doi: 10.33314/jnhrc.v17i4.2065.
Zinc deficiency is one of the major public health problems especially in developing countries, with an estimation of over 80% of pregnant women to be zinc deficient worldwide. Maternal zinc deficiency elevates the risk of foetal growth restriction. This study aimed to assess zinc deficiency and to examine the factors associated with zinc status among pregnant women attending a tertiary level hospital in Sunsari district, province no. one, Nepal.
Pregnant women were selected by using time frame consecutive sampling at B. P. Koirala Institute of Health Sciences, Dharan from September to November 2018. Data on nutritional, socio-demographic and reproductive profiles were collected using a semi-structured questionnaire. Blood was collected from each pregnant woman to estimate serum zinc concentration by atomic absorption spectrophotometry. Association between serum zinc concentration and predictor variables were assessed using chi-square test.
A total of 156 women participated in the study. The prevalence of zinc deficiency among the pregnant women was 22.6%. Our data did not show association of any of the socio-demographic, nutritional and reproductive variables with serum zinc status (p-value>0.05) in chi-square.
Zinc deficiency was found to be prevalent in our targeted population. However, community based studies need to be conducted for exploring more precise relationship between zinc status and other variables.
锌缺乏是主要的公共卫生问题之一，尤其在发展中国家，据估计全球超过80%的孕妇存在锌缺乏情况。母体锌缺乏会增加胎儿生长受限的风险。本研究旨在评估尼泊尔第一省孙萨里县一家三级医院就诊的孕妇的锌缺乏情况，并探讨与锌状态相关的因素。
2018年9月至11月，在达兰的BP柯伊拉腊健康科学研究所采用时间框架连续抽样法选取孕妇。使用半结构化问卷收集营养、社会人口学和生殖特征方面的数据。从每位孕妇采集血液，通过原子吸收分光光度法估计血清锌浓度。使用卡方检验评估血清锌浓度与预测变量之间的关联。
共有156名女性参与了本研究。孕妇中锌缺乏的患病率为22.6%。我们的数据在卡方检验中未显示任何社会人口学、营养和生殖变量与血清锌状态之间存在关联（p值>0.05）。
在我们的目标人群中发现锌缺乏情况普遍存在。然而，需要开展基于社区的研究，以探索锌状态与其他变量之间更精确的关系。
