Background: Zinc deficiency is a major public health problem in many developing countries including Nepal.\r\nThe present study was designed to assess the prevalence of zinc deficiency and to study the association of zinc\r\ndeficiency with anthropometric and socio-demographic variables, in school children of eastern Nepal.\r\nMethods: This cross-sectional study included total 125 school children of age group 6ââ?¬â??12 years from Sunsari and\r\nDhankuta districts of eastern Nepal. Plasma zinc level was estimated by Flame Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy.\r\nResults: The Median interquartile range (IQR) values of zinc in the two districts Sunsari and Dhankuta were 5.9\r\n(4.4, 7.9) Ã?µmol/L and 5.8 (4.3, 8.4) Ã?µmol/L respectively. A total of 55 children (87.3%) in Sunsari and 52 (83.9%) in\r\nDhankuta had zinc deficiency, no significant difference was observed in the Median (IQR) plasma zinc levels\r\n(p = 0.9) and zinc deficiency patterns (p = 0.3) of the two districts. Significant differences were observed in the\r\nplasma zinc levels (p = 0.02) and zinc deficiency patterns (p = 0.001), of the school children having age groups 6ââ?¬â??8\r\nyears than in 9ââ?¬â??10 and 11ââ?¬â??12 years of age, and zinc deficiency patterns between male and female school children\r\n(p = 0.04) respectively.\r\nConclusions: The present study showed higher prevalence of zinc deficiency among school children in eastern\r\nNepal. In our study, zinc deficiency was associated with both sex and age. The findings from the present study will\r\nhelp to populate data for policy implementation regarding consumption and supplementation of zinc.
Loading....