Estimation of Coverage of Vitamin A Supplementation in Children Less than Three Years in Odisha

Abstract

In India, Vitamin A Deficiency (VAD) has been recognized to be a major controllable public health and nutritional problem. Milder forms such as affecting the conjunctiva, like bitot's spots are observed in 1 - 5% of pre-school children. Objective of this study was to estimate the coverage of vitamin A supplementation in children of 9-36 months age group in the State of Odisha. It was a cross sectional study conducted in Odisha in May 2005 after vitamin A supplementation round with sample size 2700. Out of the total, 88.2% children were in the age group of 12-36 months. More than half 52.2% of the mothers and nearly 1/3^rd (33.2%) of the fathers were illiterate. The coverage of VAS for May, 2005 round in males was 75.2% and for females was 77.3%. It was found that 85.3% of this age group had received measles vaccine and 82.8% were also simultaneously given vitamin A supplementation during measles immunization. The study revealed that measles vaccine coverage among the infants of 9 - 12 months age was 85.3%. It was noted that children of all sections of the society irrespective of their caste, area of living, occupation of parents, type of housing, household size and even the literary status of mothers had taken vitamin A supplement.