ReviewNutrients2017
Vitamin A Supplementation Programs and Country-Level Evidence of Vitamin A Deficiency.
Review in Nutrients, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 123 papers, 9 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
123 citing papers in PubMed, 9 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 221 citations in OpenAlex.
- Association Between Aflatoxin Exposure and Haemoglobin, Zinc, and Vitamin A, C, and E Levels/Status: A Systematic Review.Nutrients · 2025Pooled it
- Biochemical assessment of the nutritional status of infants, children and adolescents in South Africa (1997-2022): a systematic review.Public health nutrition · 2024Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Pooled it
- The prevalence of vitamin A deficiency and its public health significance in children in low- and middle-income countries: A systematic review and modelling analysis.Journal of global health · 2023Pooled it
- Excessive Vitamin A Supplementation Increased the Incidence of Acute Respiratory Tract Infections: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Nutrients · 2021Pooled it
- Understanding multifactorial drivers of child stunting reduction in Exemplar countries: a mixed-methods approach.The American journal of clinical nutrition · 2020Pooled it
- Drivers of stunting reduction in the Kyrgyz Republic: A country case study.The American journal of clinical nutrition · 2020Pooled it
- Fortification of staple foods with vitamin A for vitamin A deficiency.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2019Pooled it
- Trial
- Trial
- Child acceptability of a novel provitamin A carotenoid, iron and zinc-rich complementary food blend prepared from pumpkin and common bean in Uganda: a randomised control trial.BMC pediatrics · 2020Trial
- Cost-effectiveness of sunflower oil fortification with vitamin A in Tanzania by scale.Maternal & child nutrition · 2019Trial
- β-Cryptoxanthin and zeaxanthin are highly bioavailable from whole-grain and refined biofortified orange maize in humans with optimal vitamin A status: a randomized, crossover, placebo-controlled trial.The American journal of clinical nutrition · 2018Trial
- Provitamin A-biofortified maize consumption increases serum xanthophylls andExperimental biology and medicine (Maywood, N.J.) · 2017Trial
- Community knowledge, attitudes, and preferences towards vitamin A supplementation in a semi-rural health zone, Kasai Oriental, Democratic Republic of the Congo: a mixed-methods study.Global health action · 2026Article
- Trends and inequalities in vitamin A supplementation coverage among children aged 6-59 months in Sierra Leone: 2008-2019.Maternal and child health journal · 2026Article
- Exploring the impact of nutrition and autophagy on infectious diseases to inform the development of homeostatic-nanomedicines for HIV-TB coinfections.Discover nano · 2026Review
- Dietary vitamin A restricts intestinal tuft cell differentiation.Cell reports · 2026Article
- Prevalence of Clinical Vitamin A Deficiency and Associated Factors Among Children Aged 24-59 Months in Finote Selam Town, Ethiopia: A Community Based Cross-Sectional Study, 2022.Health science reports · 2026Article
63 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors at 6 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Vitamin A supplementation (VAS) programs targeted at children aged 6-59 months are implemented in many countries. By improving immune function, vitamin A (VA) reduces mortality associated with measles, diarrhea, and other illnesses. There is currently a debate regarding the relevance of VAS, but amidst the debate, researchers acknowledge that the majority of nationally-representative data on VA status is outdated. To address this data gap and contribute to the debate, we examined data from 82 countries implementing VAS programs, identified other VA programs, and assessed the recentness of national VA deficiency (VAD) data. We found that two-thirds of the countries explored either have no VAD data or data that were >10 years old (i.e., measured before 2006), which included twenty countries with VAS coverage ≥70%. Fifty-one VAS programs were implemented in parallel with at least one other VA intervention, and of these, 27 countries either had no VAD data or data collected in 2005 or earlier. To fill these gaps in VAD data, countries implementing VAS and other VA interventions should measure VA status in children at least every 10 years. At the same time, the coverage of VA interventions can also be measured. We identified three countries that have scaled down VAS, but given the lack of VA deficiency data, this would be a premature undertaking in most countries without appropriate status assessment. While the global debate about VAS is important, more attention should be directed towards individual countries where programmatic decisions are made.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.