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Methods for Assessment of Vitamin A Status^1,2,

Office of International Program Activities, National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892

Assessment of the relative level of vitamin A nutriture in human populations when clinical signs and symptoms of deficiency or of toxicity are absent has presented methodological difficulties. Commonly used indicators include dietary intakes of the vitamin, serum levels, and dark adaptation, all of which have limitations in their precision, especially when applied to individuals and to young children. New and developing nonclinical indicators include the relative dose response (RDR) test or a modification (MRDR) of it, conjunctival impression cytology (CIC), and isotope dilution to estimate total body reserves. These methods, all of which are promising, require additional work to verify their sensitivity, specificity, and predictive power as indicators of relative states of vitamin A depletion for individuals and populations under the many varied conditions commonly associated with an inadequate vitamin status. Currently, the most reliable assessment of vitamin A nutriture is likely when a combination of methods is used.

KEY WORDS: • vitamin A • assessment • methods of assessment

¹ Presented as part of a conference, "Nutrition Monitoring and Nutrition Status Assessment", at the first fall meeting of the American Institute of Nutrition, Charleston, South Carolina, December 8–10, 1989. The conference was supported in part by cooperative agreement HPU880004-02-1 with the DHHS Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, the USDA Human Nutrition Information Service, the DHHS National Center for Health Statistics, and the International Life Sciences Institute-Nutrition Foundation.

² The Planning Committee for the meeting consisted of Drs. Helen A. Guthrie, Roy J. Martin, Linda D. Meyers, James A. Olson, Catherine E. Woteki, and Richard G. Allison (ex officio). The symposium papers were edited by a committee consisting of Dr. James Allen Olson (coordinator), Dept. of Biochemistry & Biophysics, Iowa State University, Ames, IA; Dr. Cathy C. Campbell, Division of Nutritional Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY; Dr. Roy J. Martin, Dept. of Foods & Nutrition, University of Georgia, Athens, GA; and Dr. Catherine E. Woteki, Food & Nutrition Board, National Academy of Sciences, Washington, DC.

Manuscript received 10 December 1989. Revision accepted 11 July 1990.

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