Anchu BG Nair¹, Betty Baby¹, Karthika TS¹, Mercy Janet L¹, Preetha MA¹, Sheeja VS¹, Sunitha SS¹ and Asha KV²*

¹Post Basic BSc Nursing Students of Govt. College of Nursing, Thiruvananthapuram, India
²Assistant Professor, Govt. College of Nursing, Thiruvananthapuram, India

*Corresponding Author: Asha KV, Assistant Professor, Govt. College of Nursing, Thiruvananthapuram, India.

Received: April 06, 2022; Published: April 26, 2022

Abstract

Vitamin A is required for the normal functioning of the visual system, maintenance of cell function for growth, epithelial integrity, production of red blood cells, immunity and reproduction. Vitamin A Deficiency (VAD) increases vulnerability to a range of illness including xerophthalmia, keratomalacia, and blindness in children. Preventive program against Nutritional Blindness related to vitamin A insufficiency was initiated in India in 1970 with the purpose of protection against nutritional blindness as a result of keratomalacia. The present study was conducted for the assessment of Compliance and barriers of Vitamin A Supplementation Programme (VASP) among under five children associated with a teaching hospital of Thiruvananthapuram district of Kerala. A descriptive cross sectional study was conducted among 118 children. Consecutive cases were selected as sample based on the inclusion criteria. A structured interview schedule was used to collect data on compliance to VASP. The study revealed that47.46% of children had full compliance to VASP, 51.7% of children had partial compliance and 0.85% of children had noncompliance. Among the children who have partial compliance, majority (18.64%) have received only 3 doses of vitamin A. The major reason for partial and non-compliance were health related problems (33.4%) and 30.64% of the participants in partial or non-compliance group reported lack of awareness regarding the VASP as reason for noncompliance. Findings of the study reveal the necessity for strengthening of VASP at the implementation level to reduce the morbidity associated with VAD.

Keywords: Compliance; Barriers; Vitamin A

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Citation

Citation: Asha KV., et al. “Compliance and Barriers of Vitamin A Supplementation for Under Five Children: A Cross Sectional Study". Acta Scientific Women's Health 4.5 (2022): 61-65.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2022 Asha KV., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.