title: Dietary intake of vitamin A in African pre-school children in Umlazi, South Africa.
abstract: Vitamin A deficiency has been shown to have an impact on morbidity and mortality and therefore prevalence rates are important for public health policy. We report the use of a 7-day recall, dietary questionnaire, which was validated and administered to 203 randomly selected urban African pre-school children in Umlazi, South Africa. Common vitamin A containing foods eaten were leafy green vegetables, pumpkin, sweet potato, mangoes and chicken liver. Although the mean daily intake of vitamin A was adequate, 19 children had intakes below the recommended dietary allowance (RDA). Thirteen of these children had eaten liver in the previous week, and as such were probably not at risk. It is therefore estimated that only 6 of the children (3%) were at risk for developing vitamin A deficiency.
authors.affiliation: Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, University of Natal.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Coutsoudis
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zwane
authors.forename: H M
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Coovadia
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Gouws
mesh_terms: D001741:Black or African American; D000367:Age Factors; D044383:Black People; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004032:Diet; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D011897:Random Allocation; D013019:South Africa / Q000453:epidemiology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014505:Urban Population; D014801:Vitamin A / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D014802:Vitamin A Deficiency / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology
chemical_list: D014801:Vitamin A