Objectives
To combat multiple micronutrient deficiencies in women and children in rural communities in South India using a multiple-micronutrient fortified crystal salt enriched with Iron, iodine, VitaminB12, folic acid and zinc.
Methods
A Randomized controlled study in villages in the suburbs of Chennai on children aged 5 to 17 years and all the women, with the households in the experimental villages being provided the fortified salt and no intervention in the control villages for 8 months. The tests done were hemoglobin, serum ferritin, serum transferrin receptor, AGP, CRP, urinary iodine and serum zinc. All the analyses were corrected for inflammation.
Results
There were 117 women and children in the experimental group and 95 women and children in the control group. In the experimental group Hemoglobin increased by 1.05gms/dL, serum Zinc by 12.23µg/dL, Serum ferritin by 6.97µg/L and Body Iron stores by 0.73mg/kg body weight and these improvements were statistically significant. By Binary logistic regression, there was a significant decrease in the prevalence of anaemia from 67.5% to 29.1% and zinc deficiency from 32.7% to 12.4% in the experimental group. There was no change in urinary iodine in the experimental group where as it decreased significantly in the control group.
Conclusions
The multiple micronutrient crystal salt was efficacious in decreasing multiple micronutrient deficiencies.
