Research paper
Redistribution of vitamin A after iron supplementation in Indonesian infants.
Study answer
What this study found
Iron supplementation worsened vitamin A status by lowering plasma retinol while increasing liver vitamin A stores, consistent with redistribution of retinol from plasma to the liver. After 6 months, plasma retinol was 0.62 ± 0.17 in the iron group and 0.56 ± 0.17 in the iron plus zinc group versus 0.74 ± 0.26 in placebo; hemoglobin and ferritin improved with iron, with ferritin 38.2 (18.0-68.1) and 31.7 (17.4-41.6) versus 15.2 (8.2-28.1). Zinc-containing regimens improved zinc status, with plasma zinc 15.5 (13.8-19.0) to 16.5 (13.7-21.0) versus 14.2 (11.9-15.9) in placebo. Beta-carotene…
- Study & population
- Masked supplementation trial in Indonesian infants recruited at about 4 months of age from 6 villages in rural Bogor District, West Java, Indonesia, and followed for 6 months.
- Intervention
- Infants received oral micronutrient syrup and/or oil 5 days per week for 6 months.
- Key limitation
- Single rural Indonesian infant cohort limits generalizability.
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Open PDFOriginal abstract
BACKGROUND Deficiencies of iron and vitamin A are prevalent worldwide. Single-micronutrient supplementation is widely used to combat these deficiencies. However, micronutrient deficiencies often occur concurrently, and there are many interactions bet…