Title : Changes in the micronutrients status in Bangladesh over the period (2011 to 2020)
Abstract:
Micronutrient deficiencies (MD) are one of the greatest public health and socioeconomic concern that adversely affect more than 2 billion people worldwide and mostly suffered by the people of low and middle-income countries. The objective of this study is to observe the changes in the micronutrient status over the period 2011-2020 for vitamin A, Vitamin D, Zinc, Ferritin and Anaemia among children (5 to 59 months) and non-pregnant and non-lactating (NPNL) women of reproductive age (15-49 years). Also, we tried to estimate the prevalence of micronutrient deficiency across different sociodemographic factors. A cross-sectional study was conducted in 2020 using multi-stage cluster sampling methods to produce estimate for key micronutrient indicators in Bangladesh where 250 clusters (8 households/ cluster) were randomly selected and we recruited 1041 under-5 children from 2045 households and 1013 NPNL women from 2045 different households and compared it with the data of 2011.
Among the under-5 children more than 7.2% children have moderate to severe Vitamin A (VitA) deficiency in 2020 which was 20% in 2011. Vitamin D (Vit D) deficiency was reported in 21.9% of children compared to 2011 was 39.6%. Approximately 31.0% of the children had Zinc deficiency and progress made than 2011 was 44.6%. The prevalence of anaemia was 21.1% whereas it was 33.1% in 2011. Around 15.1% and 10.7% of children had iron deficiency in 2020 and 2011 respectively .
Among NPNL women, mild to severe VitA deficiency reported higher in 2020 was 7.5% than 2011 which was 5.4%. VitD deficiency was reported 69.9% in 2020 and 71.5% in 2011. Iron deficiency also reported higher in 2020 compared to 2011 (14.1% vs 7.1%). Prevalence of anaemia was higher in 2020, 28.9% than 2011, 26%. Zinc deficiency (43.4 %) and 20.20% had Vitamin B12 deficiency in 2020 and 57.3%, 23% in 2011 which shows improvement . One third of the NPNL women (29.0%) had Folate deficiency. Among the NPNL women, 73% have two or more micronutrient deficiencies.
This study reveals that despite a comprehensive micronutrient program in the rural and urban areas targeting under-5 children and NPNL women, a wide spread deficiency of multiple micronutrients has been observed in the study population, and the situation demands urgent review of the nutrition program in Bangladesh. Generating a national evidence of the gaps is crucial for developing well-designed program supported by evidence-based policy that would enhance promoting micronutrient sufficiency at the population level towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goal of decreasing poverty in in Bangladesh.
Audience Take Away:
- From my presentation, the audience will get a compared scenario of the micronutrient status in Bangladesh that may help them to take global public health decision making process and provide new information to assist in a design problem and solution.
- This findings can be used as referral for any upcoming study and this research that other faculty could use to expand their research or teaching. Further study/research could be conducted in another country based on the experience gathered from this current study.
