Study Status: Completed
Recruit Status: Unknown status
Study Type: Interventional
Official Title: Using Stable Isotope Techniques to Monitor and Assess the Vitamin A Status of Children Susceptible to Infection in Ethiopia
Brief Summary: The combination of infectious diseases and malnutrition is the most prevalent, preventable public health problem in the world, responsible for millions of deaths annually, particularly in infants and children. Approximately 13 million children die each year in developing countries from infectious diseases, with the majority of these deaths related to malnutrition. The relationship between infections and malnutrition is synergistic, each further compromising the outcome of the other. Malnutrition compromises natural immunity leading to increased susceptibility to infections, more frequent and prolonged disease episodes, and increased severity of disease. Likewise, infections can aggravate or precipitate malnutrition through decreased appetite and food intake, nutrient malabsorption, nutrient loss or increased metabolic needs. Another issue is that infections (as well as overweight and obesity status) affect nutritional biomarkers making it difficult to assess the real magnitude of some nutritional problems. This is the case of vitamin A. Vitamin A deficiency is defined to be of severe public health importance if 20% or more of a defined population has a serum retinol concentration of less than 0.7 µmol/L. However, circulating concentrations of serum retinol are reduced by infections and in such situations serum retinol concentration is not a good indicator of vitamin A status. Serum acute-phase proteins can indicate the severity and duration of an infection. Correcting vitamin A deficiency is addressed in Ethiopia through vitamin A supplementation of children, dietary diversity and using bio-fortified foods. However, assessing vitamin A status, and the effectiveness of government interventions, is challenging in settings where infectious diseases are endemic, as in most area of the country. Evaluation of vitamin A status is relatively insensitive when based on changes in serum retinol concentrations, which are homeostatically controlled and negatively affected b