Effects of vitamin A supplementation on child mortality: evidence from Nepal's 2001 Demographic and Health Survey.
OBJECTIVE
To assess the effect of Nepal's vitamin A supplementation programme on child mortality at age 12-59 months.


METHODS
Logistic regression, applied to retrospective data from Nepal's 2001 Demographic and Health Survey.


RESULTS
After a number of potentially confounding variables are controlled, the effect of 100% community-level vitamin A coverage since the child's birth, relative to no coverage, is to reduce the odds of dying at age 12-59 months by slightly more than half (OR = 0.47, P = 0.03).


CONCLUSIONS
The estimated beneficial effect of vitamin A supplementation on child mortality is larger than that found in most earlier clinical studies. This larger effect may be due mainly to the other health-related activities undertaken by the female community health volunteers who distribute vitamin A capsules.
Thapa
Shyam
S
Family Health International, Arlington, VA 22201, USA. sthapa@fhi.org
Choe
Minja Kim
MK
Retherford
Robert D
RD
D046688:Child Mortality; D002675:Child, Preschool; D019587:Dietary Supplements; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007226:Infant Mortality; D015233:Models, Statistical; D009390:Nepal / Q000453:epidemiology; D016017:Odds Ratio; D011159:Population Surveillance / Q000379:methods; D011203:Poverty; D015397:Program Evaluation / Q000379:methods; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014801:Vitamin A / Q000008:administration & dosage*
D014801:Vitamin A