Vol. 20 No. 1 © Oxford University Press, 2005; all rights reserved
The impact of vitamin A supplementation on mortality inequalities among children in Nepal
1 Department of Population and Family Health Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA, 2 Department of Community Medicine, Institute of Medicine, Maharajgunj, Kathmandu, Nepal, 3 Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins University, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA and 4 Nepal Nutrition Intervention Project-Sarlahi, c/o Nepal Eye Hospital, Kathmandu, Nepal
* Correspondence: David Bishai, Department of Population and Family Health Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, Bloomberg School of Public Health, 615 N Wolfe St, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA. Email:Email: dbishai{at}jhu.edu; Fax: +1 410 955-2303
Objective: This paper examines gender, caste and economic differentials in child mortality in the context of a cluster-randomized trial of vitamin A distribution, in order to determine whether or not the intervention narrowed these differentials.
Design: The study involved secondary analysis of data from a placebo-controlled randomized field trial of vitamin A supplements. The study took place between 1989–1991 in rural Sarlahi District of Nepal, with 30 059 children age 6 to 60 months. The main outcome measures were differences in mortality between boys and girls, between highest Hindu castes and others, and between the poorest quintile and the four other quintiles.
Results: Without vitamin A, girls in rural Nepal experience 26.1 deaths per 1000, which is 8.3 deaths more than the comparison population of boys. With vitamin A the mortality disadvantage of girls is nearly completely attenuated, at only 1.41 additional deaths per 1000 relative to boys. Vitamin A supplementation also narrowed mortality differentials among Hindu castes, but did not lower the concentration of mortality across quintiles of asset ownership. The vitamin A-related attenuation in mortality disadvantage from gender and caste is statistically significant.
Conclusions: We conclude that universal supplementation with vitamin A narrowed differentials in child death across gender and caste in rural Nepal. Assuring high-coverage vitamin A distribution throughout Nepal could help reduce inequalities in child survival in this population.
Key Words: health equity, vitamin A, child mortality, Nepal
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