Review of Policies and Programs Linked to Decreased Prevalence of Vitamin a Deficiency in World



Rajaeieh G¹ ; Kalantari N¹ ; Mohammadinasrabadi F¹ ; Mohamadi E² ; Takian AH^{2, 3} Show Affiliations
Source: Iranian Journal of Nutrition Sciences and Food Technology Published:2020

Abstract

One of the major health problems in most of the countries is vitamin A deficiency, which causes serious complications in children. Worldwide, nearly 2.8 million children aged 4–6 years old are affected by clinical and subclinical symptoms of vitamin A deficiency. Based on the studies from Iran, prevalence of vitamin A deficiency has increased in some provinces. This problem needs improvements through interventions and policies powered by scientific evidence-based policy analyses of the health systems. Therefore, the present review study investigated policies, experiences, effectiveness, strengths, advantages and limitations of other countries for the highlighted parameters. Findings from this review suggested that vitamin A deficiency programs and policies could be classified into four major categories of supplementation, food fortification, dietary changes and health interventions. Considering effectiveness and strength of the programs (such as fast effectiveness of supplementations, sustainability of dietary changes or enrichments) and weakness (such as dependence on external sources of supplementation or high costs of enrichment and local resistance to dietary changes). The best approach to decrease vitamin A deficiency is a combination of interventions as well as development and implement of community contexts, stakeholder supports and monitoring of the processes and outcomes of the programs. © 2020, National Nutrition and Food Technology Research Institute. All rights reserved.