Serum vitamin A status is associated with obesity and the metabolic syndrome among school-age children in
Chongqing, China
The aim of our study was to examine the association of vitamin A status with obesity and the metabolic syndrome
(MS) in school-age children in Chongqing, China. A cross-sectional study was conducted of 1,928 children aged
7~11 years from 5 schools in Chongqing, China. Body height, weight, waist circumference (WC) and blood pressure
were measured. Blood glucose, lipids and vitamin A were determined. Overall prevalences for overweight,
obesity and MS were 10.1%, 6.7% and 3.5%, respectively. There were 274 (14.2%) marginally vitamin A deficient
(MVAD) children and 53 (2.8%) vitamin A deficient (VAD) children, respectively. Serum vitamin A in the
obese group was significantly lower than in the overweight and normal weight groups (p<0.001). Body mass index
(BMI), WC, high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and glucose were strongly associated with vitamin
A status (p<0.05). In a separate model adjusted for age and sex, compared with normal children, participants with
obesity had a significantly higher risk of having vitamin A insufficiency (≤1.05 μmol/L) (OR: 2.37; 95% CI: 1.59,
3.55) (p<0.001), and participants with MS had a 1.99-fold (95% CI: 1.14, 3.47) greater risk of having vitamin A
insufficiency (p=0.016), while participants with VAD had significantly higher risk of having MS (OR: 3.82; 95%
CI: 1.44, 10.2) (p=0.007). Vitamin A insufficiency among Chongqing urban school-age children was found to be
a severe health problem, significantly associated with obesity, hypertriglyceridemia and MS.