Authors : Pullakhandam R, Agrawal PK, Peter R, Ghosh S, Reddy GB, Kulkarni B, Thomas T, Kurpad AV, Sachdev HS, Porwal A, Khan N, Ramesh S, Acharya R, Sarna A, Kapil U, Rajkumar H, De Wagt A, Deb S, Johnston R.
Publication Year : 2021
Background: It is thought that there is a high risk of zinc deficiency in India, but there are no representative national estimates.
Objectives: We aimed to evaluate the national and state-level prevalence of low serum zinc concentrations (SZCs) in Indian children from the nationally representative Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey.
Methods: Prevalence of low SZC, adjusted for C-reactive protein, was estimated among preschool (1-4 y; n = 7874) and school-age children (5-9 y; n = 10,430) and adolescents (10-19 y; n = 10,140), using SZC cutoffs defined by the International Zinc Nutrition Consultative Group.
Results: Prevalence of low SZC was high among adolescents (31.1%; 95% CI: 29.8%, 32.4%), compared with school-age (15.8%; 95% CI: 15.3%, 16.3%) or preschool children (17.4%; 95% CI: 16.7%, 18.0%). However, stratification of prevalence by fasting status or using an alternative lower SZC cutoff independent of fasting status led to a reduction in prevalence by 3.7% or 7.8% in children <10>
Conclusions: The national prevalence of low SZC among preschool (17%) or school-age children (16%) was <20>