Vitamin A supplement: a key strategy to prevent vitamin A deficiency among young children in Afghanistan

摘要

Background:Vitamin A deficiency is the main problem of public health worldwide demonstrated that 190 million population of preschool children and 122 countries(in Africa and South-East Asia)have vitamin A deficiency,according to recent estimated research.In Afghanistan,vitamin A supplementation is a key strategy to prevent vitamin A deficiency among young children.Children receive vitamin A supplements as part of National Immunization Days(NID)campaigns.Methods:In this case study,the data was collected from June 15/2015 to February 23/2016,and the final report of the Afghanistan Demographic Health Survey(AfDHS)2015 was released on February 15/2017.All 27,209 children aged 6-59 months who are living with their mothers were included in this study.Who consumed foods rich in vitamin A was not included in this study.Results:The percentages who were given vitamin A supplements in the last 6 months among all children 6-59 months aged.A total of 1,572 children aged among 6-8 months were given vitamin A supplements 670(42.6%)children and comparison with the total community of the study(27,209)children(2.46%).A total of 1,148 children aged among 9-11 months were given vitamin A supplements to 465(40.5%)children and comparison with the total community of the study(27,209)children(1.70%).Conclusion:After following up on more studies,we found that vitamin A deficiency is a public problem,thus it is better to use wheat flour fortification,vitamin A capsule(VAC)supplementation,nutrition education,source of vitamin A,and training of primary healthcare workers on the clinical to prevent and treat the vitamin A deficiency among children.Therefore,we aimed to determine the given vitamin A supplementation among children aged 6-59 months in 33 provinces in Afghanistan,in 2015.