[Nutritional status of vitamin A in preschoolers with ocular diseases]

The purpose was to evaluate the nutritional status of vitamin A in preschool children with ocular diseases attending to the Hospital Civil of Guadalajara. In a cross sectional design 100 preschool children between 24 and 71 mo of age with ocular diseases were included. Vitamin A intake was evaluated by 24 h dietetic recall, plasma Retinol concentration by high pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC); and, conjunctiva impression cytology (CIC) was carried out by a trained pathologist. ANOVA and U Mann Whitney tests, and also Spearman correlations were estimated. There were 44.1% females and 55,9% males. Strabismus was the most common disease (41,9%), conjunctivitis (19,4%), and congenital diseases (17,2%). The mean intake of Vitamin A was 374 microg/d +/- 706 and the serum concentration of retinol was of 30 microg/dL +/- 7,6; CIC was normal in 75,6%. The percentage of vitamin A deficiency was 3,2% according to the serum concentration of Retinol and 3,5% to the CIC criteria. It was not association between the nutritional status of vitamin A and ocular diseases. A positive correlation between vitamin A intake and weight/height index (r = 0,244) was found. In conclusion, most preschool children covered the dietary reference intake recommendation of vitamin A; deficiency of this vitamin was lower and, it was not associated to ocular diseases.