Trends in Iron, Zinc, and Vitamin A Status Biomarkers Among Colombian Children: Results From 2 Nationally Representative Surveys

Background: Micronutrient deficiencies are still highly prevalent in countries undergoing the nutrition transition, but nationally representative data documenting their burden in children are exceedingly rare.Objective: To examine the distribution and recent trends in micronutrient status biomarkers of Colombian children.Methods: We compared the distributions of plasma ferritin, serum zinc, and vitamin A in Colombian children between 2005 and 2010 using 2 cross-sectional, nationally representative surveys overall and by categories of sociodemographic variables. Analysis for ferritin included boys and nonpregnant girls aged 1 to 17 years. Analyses for zinc and vitamin A included children aged 1 to 4 years.Results: The mean 2010 to 2005 differences in ferritin, zinc, and vitamin A were 2.5 µg/L (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.3 to 3.7), −34.9 µg/dL (95% CI: −39.6 to −30.2), and −11.5 µg/dL (95% CI: −12.3 to −10.7), respectively, after adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics. These differences varied significantly by region of residence. In 2010, region of residence was a significant correlate for all 3 micronutrients. Other important correlates included age and maternal education for ferritin and body mass index-for-age Z score, maternal education, wealth index, food insecurity, and urbanicity for vitamin A.Conclusions: Plasma ferritin was slightly higher in 2010 than in 2005, whereas serum zinc and vitamin A were substantially lower in 2010. In the absence of obvious causal explanations, it is uncertain whether this decline represents a worsening of micronutrient status in Colombian children or an artifact due to systematic laboratory or data management errors incurred in the surveys.