A comparative study on indicators of vitamin A status and risk factors for sensitivity and specificity of the methods to detect vitamin A deficiency

Table 1 Baseline characteristics of participating children 36–59 months of age in rural Burkina Faso

Parameters¹	Category	Study population N = 115
Child’s sex, male		62 (53.9)
Child’s age (month)		48.9 ± 6.8
Mother’s education	None	91 (79.1)
	Primary	17 (14.8)
	Secondary	5 (4.4)
	Other	2 (1.7)
Father’s occupation	None	2 (1.7)
	Farmer	109 (94.8)
	trader	1 (0.9)
	Other	3 (2.6)
Anthropometric indices	HAZ	-1.21 ± 1.08
	WHZ	-0.09 ± 0.92
	WAZ	-0.78 ± 0.80
Absence of morbidity²		113 (98.3)
Hemoglobin concentration (g/dL)		12.2 ± 1.4
Anemia	Non-anemic (Hb ≥ 11.5 g/dL)	97 (85.1)
	Mildly anemic (Hb < 11.5 g/dL)	17 (14.9)
Malaria	Positive malaria smear	5 (4.35)
Malaria	Positive RDT	6 (5.22)
Intestinal parasites	Positive slides	50 (47.6)
Acute phase proteins	CRP³	0.44 ± 5.71
	High CRP (> 5.0 mg/L)	2 (1. 9)
	AGP³	0.89 ± 0.52
	High AGP (> 1.0 g/L)	30 (28.6)
Dietary diversity score⁴		4.1 ± 1.1
Asset index		0.10 (-0.57; 0.58)

HAZ, height-for-age z-score; WHZ, weight-for-height z-score; WAZ, weight-for-age z-score; Hb, hemoglobin concentration
¹ Values presented are means ± SD, n (%), and median (Q25- Q75)
² Absence of clinical illness including cough, runny nose, and reported vomiting
³ Values were first log-transformed for analysis
⁴ Number of food groups consumed out of nine

ISSN: 1743-7075