Letters to the Editor

Indian Pediatrics 2003; 40:372-373

Prevalence of Night Blindness Amongst Pregnant Woman of Urban Slum Communities in Delhi: A Pilot Study

Night blindness (NB) is widespread in South East Asia affecting 10-50% of pregnant women (PW). Its deficiency has been documented to play a significant role in the morbidity and mortality of the PW and the fetal outcome(1,2). We would like to share our findings of a Pilot Study conducted amongst PW to assess the prevalence of Night Blindness (NB). The study was conducted in a hospital amongst PW of II and III trimester attending an antenatal clinic, New Delhi. All consecutive PW in the age group of 17-40 years were included in the study. Eight hundred and twenty nine PW constituted the study population. NB was assessed by administering a pre-tested semi-structured questionnaire on the presence of symptoms of NB. The PW were asked specific questions like (i) if they could clearly see at the time of sunset and later in dim light (ii) if they had any problems in cooking food during dusk period due to lack of proper vision (iii) if there was a change in their activity pattern because of problems in vision in the dusk. The subjects with positive response to all of the three questions were classified as suffering from NB. From 10% of the randomly selected PW included in the study, the dietary intake for Energy, Protein and Vitamin A was assessed using the 24 hour dietary recall method(3). The intake was calculated by using the Nutritive Value of Indian Foods published by National Institute of Nutrition, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)(4). Recommended Dietary Allowances suggested by the ICMR for PW (sedentary worker) were utilized to assess the adequacy of nutrient intake(5). Fifty four percent (n = 448) of the PW were in II and 46% (n = 381) in III trimester. Prevalence of NB amongst PW was 4.8%. Nearly 2.7% of PW reported NB also during their previous pregnancy. Results on dietary intake showed that 57% of the PW were consuming less than 50% of Vitamin A as compared to their RDA. Studies from Bangladesh and Nepal have also reported the prevalence of NB in 15-20% of PW(1,6). The present study highlighted NB as a health problem amongst PW of urban slum communities of New Delhi. There is a need of undertaking multi-centric studies in different regions of the country to assess the nutriture of Vitamin A.