title: Magnitude of zinc deficiency amongst under five children in India.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To estimate the prevalence of serum zinc deficiency in children of 6 months to 60 months of age.
  
  
  METHODS
  A community based cross-sectional study was conducted to collect the data to establish the prevalence of zinc deficiency in children in 6-60 months of age in five states namely, Uttar Pradesh(Northern region), Karnataka (Southern region), Orissa (Eastern region), Gujarat (Western region) and Madhya Pradesh (Central region) of the country. In each state, all the districts with ICDS scheme were enlisted and one district was selected with the help of Random number table (RNT). In each district, all the ICDS projects were selected and one ICDS project was selected with help of RNT. In the selected ICDS project, a cluster 5 Anganwadi centres (AWC) were selected. From the selected AWCs, three hundred children in the age group of 6-60 months were selected for the detailed study. A total of 1,655 subjects (836 males and 819 females) were included. The blood samples were collected from each child. The serum zinc estimation was done by atomic absorption spectrophotometer.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The overall prevalence of zinc deficiency in five states was 43.8% . The prevalence of zinc deficiency was highest in Orissa (51.3%), followed by Uttar Pradesh (48.1%), Gujarat (44.2%), Madhya Pradesh (38.9%) and Karnataka (36.2%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The present study revealed a high prevalence of zinc deficiency in children belonging to Low Socio-economic Index (LSI) in India.
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Nutrition, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Ansari Nagar, New Delhi 110029, India. umeshkapil@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Umesh
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Kapil
authors.forename: Kajal
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Jain
mesh_terms: D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003677:Deficiency Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007194:India / Q000453:epidemiology; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence; D015032:Zinc / Q000172:deficiency*
chemical_list: D015032:Zinc