Dietary intake and vitamin A deficiency among children aged 6 to 23 months in the Province of Sanmatenga, Burkina Faso

BACKGROUND: Micronutrient deficiencies are a serious public health problem in sub-Saharan Africa and have particularly devastating consequences for children’s health. In Burkina Faso, this burden, which is particularly marked by vitamin A deficiency, is exacerbated in certain areas where security and humanitarian problems are reducing access to health and nutritional services. One of the solutions most promoted at the national level to address these micronutrient deficiencies is the use of Small-quantity lipid-based nutrient supplements (SQ-LNS). To understand the extent of this burden of malnutrition and to enable the strategy to be evaluated, it is necessary to carry out an epidemiological assessment of the nutritional status of children before implementing supplementation. METHODS: The nutritional status of the children was assessed using anthropometric measurements and serum retinol concentrations. Interviews were conducted with the children’s mothers to determine their feeding practices. Binary logistic regression was used to determine the variables significantly associated with vitamin A deficiency (p < 0.05). Candidate variables for this test were obtained by a chi-square test at p < 0.20. RESULTS: A total of 86.6% of the children were vitamin A deficient. In addition, only 11.8% of the participants had minimum dietary diversity. It emerged that 1.4% of the children had eaten roots, tubers and vegetables rich in vitamin A the day before the survey, and only 3.5% had eaten fruits rich in vitamin A. The study also showed that there was a statistically significant association (p < 0.05) between dietary diversity and vitamin A deficiency. CONCLUSIONS: The results show the actual level of vitamin A deficiency in the study area and provide a factual basis for adopting strategies to address the problem of vitamin A deficiency. TRIAL REGISTRATION: The Ethics Committee for Health Research in Burkina Faso has given its authorization for this study under number 2022_60_/MSHP/MESRSI/CERS of 03/02/2022.