Study on milk vitamin A, serum vitamin A and serum protein levels of lactating mothers of Bochessa village, rural Ethiopia
Thein, M.
East African Medical Journal 56(11): 542-547
1979
ISSN/ISBN: 0012-835X PMID: 520231 Document Number: 148870
For 52 lactating women of a rural village in Ethiopia, mean age 24 years, the mean vitamin A concentration was in serum 68.87 plus or minus 84.11 (s.d.) and the median was less than 10 mu g/100 ml, which was low; 40% of the women had less than 10 mu g/100 ml. It was in milk 19.2 plus or minus 10.94, median 18 mu g/100 ml and 20% of the women had less than 10 mu g/100 ml. According to a FAO/WHO expert committee (NAR 37, 7811 ?) that mean was acceptable and the median was at the lower end of the acceptable range; a healthy woman should have about 50 IU/100 ml. Vitamin A content of serum was related closely to that of milk and less closely to serum protein. It was known that the daily intake of vitamin A in Ethiopia was almost 2900 IU and ought to be enough for minimum requirements, but diarrhoea and liver cirrhosis were common and may have impaired the absorption of carotene and its conversion to vitamin A. Any supplement with vitamin A given to the mothers for the benefit of the infants ought to include a supplement of protein also.