International Journal of Research in Medical Sciences | December 2016 | Vol 4 | Issue 12 Page 5176 International Journal of Research in Medical Sciences Batta M et al. Int J Res Med Sci. 2016 Dec;4(12):5176-5179 www.msjonline.org pISSN 2320-6071 | eISSN 2320-6012 Original Research Article Vitamin deficiency prevalence in primary school children in Punjab, India Meenal Batta 1 *, Naveenta Gupta 1 , Geetika Goyal 2 , Amit Jain 1 INTRODUCTION Vitamin deficiencies in developing countries are the “hidden hunger” which strike the core of health and vitality. Vitamin and mineral deficiencies affects over two billion people in 80 developing countries. These deficiencies can affect any and every system of body and contribute not only to high rates of maternal and child deaths but also increase the morbidity like blindness, decreased IQ, lowered immunity, growth impairment and affliction by various diseases. Severe malnutirition is associated with deranged auditory functions, which is also accompanied with vitamin deficiencies. 1 The global burden of these diseases should be an eye-opener for the government to take steps to curb this problem. These conditions are prevalent in the society and parents are unaware of them due to their asymptomatic nature. It has been recognized that addressing vitamin and micronutrient deficiencies is integral to achieving the second Sustainable Development Goal (SDGs) charted out by the United Nations. 2 Improving nutrition is not only directly connected with the second SDG of ending hunger, achieving food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture by 2030 but has a vital role to play in achieving other SDGs, particularly those related to improvements in primary education, child mortality, maternal health, and the ability to combat disease. The primary school going children are even more prone to get the vitamin deficiency disorders as reported ABSTRACT Background: Vitamin deficiencies are the conditions which are prevalent in the society and parents are unaware of them due to their asymptomatic nature. Overcoming this deficiency is integral in achieving the second Sustainable Development Goal charted out by the United Nations. Treatable and preventable nature of these conditions needs to be emphasized. Aims and objectives of the study were to study the prevalence of clinical features of vitamin deficiencies in primary school children. Methods: This single point cross sectional study was conducted in primary school children in Faridkot and comprised of students in the age group of 5-11 years. A total of 849 students were clinically examined. The clinical features of vitamin deficiencies were recorded. Descriptive analysis was used for interpretation. Results: Overall incidence of vitamin deficiency features was 18.96%. The features of vitamin A, B complex, C, and D deficiency were seen in 7.18%, 18.02%, 3.06% and 8.48% respectively. Some children have more than one deficiency features. Conclusions: The primary school children do suffer from vitamin deficiencies and there should be timely evaluation for these diseases. Larger studies substantiated with blood levels would provide more insight into these conditions. Keywords: Clinical features, Primary school children, Vitamin deficiency 1 Department of Physiology, Guru Gobind Singh Medical College, Faridkot, Punjab, India 2 Department of Pathology, Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital, New Delhi, India Received: 15 October 2016 Accepted: 20 October 2016 *Correspondence: Dr. Meenal Batta, E-mail: drshashikantdhir@gmail.com Copyright: © the author(s), publisher and licensee Medip Academy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18203/2320-6012.ijrms20164011