title: Vitamin A status and factors associated in healthy school-age children.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) is one of the most widespread vitamin deficiencies. Vitamin A is essential for children in order to ensure a healthy life span and sustain the normal growth and development. Aim of this study is to examine vitamin A status, and factors associated with it, in healthy school-age children.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study was carried out in schools in Altindag, the district of Ankara, from April to May 2009. 585 girls and 478 boys, a total of 1063 healthy children aged 5-16 years were taken into the study. Serum retinol, ferritin and hs-CRP levels and complete blood count of each case were measured. A questionnaire was developed to collect socio-economic and demographic information of the participants.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Any subclinical VAD (SRL <0.7 μmol/L) was not detected in the children attending the study. However, SRLs were suboptimal in 2.2% of cases and these children were under a high risk of developing subclinical, and subsequently clinical VAD. There were significant positive correlations between serum retinol and hemoglobin values, and statistically significant negative correlation between serum retinol level and ferritin and hsCRP.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Vitamin A deficiency does not constitute an important public health problem for Altindag, Ankara, Turkey. Frequency of such vitamin deficiencies should be revealed before launching nationwide public health programs to fight with these deficiencies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Endocrinology, Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey. Electronic address: dvuralli@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Dogus
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Vuralli
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Metabolism and Nutrition, Gazi University, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Leyla
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Tumer
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Metabolism and Nutrition, Gazi University, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Alev
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hasanoglu
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Metabolism and Nutrition, Gazi University, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Gürsel
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Biberoglu
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, Gazi University, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Hatice
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Pasaoglu
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002097:C-Reactive Protein / Q000378:metabolism; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D005293:Ferritins / Q000097:blood; D006454:Hemoglobins / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D007958:Leukocyte Count; D008297:Male; D009752:Nutritional Status; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014421:Turkey; D014801:Vitamin A / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000097:blood*; D014802:Vitamin A Deficiency / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*
chemical_list: D006454:Hemoglobins; D014801:Vitamin A; D002097:C-Reactive Protein; D005293:Ferritins
keywords: Deficiency; Retinol; Turkey; Vitamin A