A Study in Improving Micronutrient Status of Communities Using Crystal Salt Enriched with Multiple Micronutrients
Malavika Vinod Kumar *
Sundar Serendipity Foundation, Chennai, Tamilnadu, India.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Objectives: To combat multiple micronutrient deficiencies using a multiple micronutrient fortified crystal salt enriched with Iron, iodine, Vitamin B12, 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. All the subjects were dewormed at baseline and endline. The tests done were hemoglobin, serum ferritin, serum transferrin receptor, AGP, CRP, urinary iodine and serum zinc. All the subjects were corrected for inflammation.
Results: There were 117 women and children in the experimental group and 95 women and children in the control group. ANOVA repeat measures showed that there was a significant improvement in all the iron parameters and serum zinc in the experimental group when compared with the control. In the experimental group Hemoglobin increased from 11.35gms/dL to 12.4gms/dL, serum Zinc from 75.44 μg/dL to 87.67 μg/dL , Serum ferritin from 32.42 μg/L to 38.13 μg/L and Body Iron stores from 4.57 to 5.30mg/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. Urinary iodine was similar in both the groups as there was no Urinary iodine deficiency in both the groups.
Conclusions: The multiple micronutrient crystal salt was able to combat multiple micronutrient deficiencies.