Technical Consultation: Assessing Vitamin A Status in Population-based Assessments

ATLANTA, USA; AUGUST 29, 2017

Participant List – Meeting Agenda

On August 29, 2017, GAVA, through its core partners (Center for Disease Control and Prevention – CDC; Helen Keller International – HKI; Nutrition International – NI; and The United Nations Children’s Fund – UNICEF) hosted a technical consultation to review and discuss current approaches to assessing vitamin A status in population-based assessments. The one-day meeting held at CDC in Atlanta was attended by experts from various fields related to vitamin A deficiency, including programming, laboratory methods, and population-based surveys.

Rationale & Objectives

As more countries undertake population-based nutrition surveys to assess micronutrient status and the extent of deficiencies in their populations, there is an increasing need to provide updated recommendations on the selection of appropriate indicators. WHO is engaged in a multi-year process to update its recommendations for vitamin A micronutrient status indicators. As this process is ongoing, the GAVA technical consultation was convened to draft a technical brief outlining how to determine vitamin A status in population-based assessments. This brief was meant to serve as interim guidance on the biochemical assessment of vitamin A status.

The objectives of the meeting were to:

1. Reach a consensus on interim guidance on how to determine vitamin A status in population-based nutritional assessments;
2. Determine which indicators or combination of indicators are most useful to assess vitamin A status;
3. Reach conclusions on the best approach to establish cut-offs and adjust data for inflammation; and
4. Identify priority next steps and additional research questions.

The technical brief drafted at this meeting is currently awaiting clearance by CDC.

Participant List – Meeting Agenda