QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text (PDF) Purchase Article View Shopping Cart Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Katz, J. Articles by Sommer, A. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Katz, J. Articles by Sommer, A.

Night Blindness Is Prevalent during Pregnancy and Lactation in Rural Nepal^1,2,3,4,

Joanne Katz⁵, Subarna K. Khatry^*, Keith P. West, Jean H. Humphrey, Steven C. Leclerq, Elizabeth Kimbrough Pradhan, R. P. Pohkrel^* and Alfred Sommer

Department of International Health, The Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, Baltimore, MD ^* National Society for the Prevention of Blindness and World Health Organization Prevention of Blindness Programme, Kathmandu, Nepal Dean's Office, The Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, Baltimore, MD 21205-2103

The prevalence of night blindness during pregnancy and lactation was assessed in a sample of 426 women living in the rural teral of Nepal. These women were also examined for ocular signs of vitamin A deficiency. Among 241 lactating women, 16.2% reported experiencing night blindness at some time during the pregnancy that produced the infant they were now breast-feeding. Among 185 pregnant women, 8.1% reported being night-blind at the time of the interview. The odds of night blindness in the current pregnancy were six times greater for women who reported night blindness in their previous pregnancy. Night-blind women were more likely to come from households with lower socioeconomic status. Teenage women and those over the age of 30 were at highest risk, particularly those of higher parity within these age groups. Vitamin A deficiency, for which night blindness is a marker, seems to be a problem in this population of pregnant and lactating women, with potential health consequences for women and their infants.

KEY WORDS: • pregnancy • lactation • humans • xerophthalmia • night blindness

¹ Funded by USAID, with financial and technical assistance from Task Force Sight and Life (Roche, Basel), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), Nepal, and National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant no. RR04060.

² Conducted under cooperative agreement no. DAN 0045-A-5094 between the Office of Nutrition, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Washington, DC, the Dana Center for Preventive Ophthalmology (DCPO), and the Center for Human Nutrition at Johns Hopkins University. The study was a joint undertaking between DCPO and the National Society for the Prevention of Blindness, Kathmandu, Nepal.

³ The Sarlahi Study Group comprises (in addition to the authors): S. R. Shrestha, M. D. Thapa, D. N. Mandal, T. R. Sakya, L. Clement, J. Gmunder, R. A. Adhikari, F. R. Davidson and D. Piet.

⁴ The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked "advertisement" in accordance with 18 USC section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.

⁵ To whom correspondence should be addressed.

Manuscript received 13 July 1994. Revision accepted 21 February 1995.