title: Breast-milk vitamin A as an indicator of the vitamin A status of women and infants.
abstract: This article reviews the evidence for using breast-milk vitamin A as an indicator of vitamin A status and provides technical information for researchers who want to use this indicator to assess the vitamin A status of women and breast-fed children. Breast-milk vitamin A is a unique indicator for assessing the vitamin A status of lactating women and their breast-fed infants, and has recently been recommended by WHO for use in monitoring global elimination of vitamin A deficiency. Assessing breast-milk vitamin A is less invasive than alternative approaches for assessing a mother's vitamin A status and not at all invasive for her infant. Collection of milk samples in the field is generally feasible and acceptable. Breast-milk vitamin A appears to be an especially good indicator for measuring the impact of vitamin A interventions on women and infants, and for this purpose, it is more responsive than other indicators.
authors.affiliation: Department of International Health, School of Hygiene and Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA.
authors.forename: R J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Stoltzfus
authors.forename: B A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Underwood
mesh_terms: D005240:Feasibility Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007227:Infant Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007774:Lactation; D008895:Milk, Human / Q000737:chemistry*; D015596:Nutrition Assessment; D009747:Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D009752:Nutritional Status; D011247:Pregnancy; D014801:Vitamin A / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D014801:Vitamin A