Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) is a widespread public health problem in developing\nnations affecting greatly pregnant and lactating women. To alleviate the\ndeficiency, many strategies were set up by the Cameroonian authorities.\nHowever, the level of VAD is still very high, thus the option of supplementation\nof foods remains a very important option. The aim of this study was to\nevaluate the impact of a food supplementation with komba, a Cameroonian\ntraditional yellow maize cake, on vitamin A status of lactating mothers in\nNgaoundere town. To achieve this, 40 lactating mothers were recruited in four\nhealth facilities of the Ngaoundere town. They were dewormed and subdivided\nin two groups of 20 subjects each and fed for two months. The test\ngroup received 200 g of yellow maize cake while the control group received\n200 g of white maize. 24-hour dietary recall was used to assess their food intake\nduring the study period. Blood sample were collected at the beginning\nand the end of the study and the serum retinol determined. Results show that\nbefore the supplementation, 45% of the women had inadequate level of serum\nretinol in each group. At the end of the 2 months of supplementation, 30% of\nthe control group remained inadequate, while the totality of all the women in\nthe test group had adequate serum retinol levels (â�¥1.05 �¼mol/l). That means\nan improvement of the vitamin A status in the test group. Results also show a\nsignificant (p < 0.05) increase of 36.3% of serum retinol in the test group\nagainst 3.8% in the control group. The women of the test group had more\nchances to see their serum retinol increasing compared to the control group.\nConsumption of yellow maize cake therefore improves the vitamin A status of\nlactating mothers. The population can therefore change their habits to consume\nyellow maize instead of the white maize variety popularly consumed.
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