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Introduction:
Zinc deficiency is a health problem in many
communities, especially among children because
of growth spurt. Zinc deficiency can cause;growth limitation,
delay in sexuel maturity, behavior disorders
and abnormalities of immune system,susceptibility to respiratory
and gasterointestinal infections and
impairment of taste and smell perception.
Material and Method:
One of the methods of assessment the zinc
defeciency is “ Zinc taste test” using zinc
sulfate solution 0.1% , this test performed used to assess the
zinc deficiency among preshool childeren in
Yazd. The results were evaluated with measurments of
weight,height and demographic data. 400 preschool
children were selected by multi stage random sampling.Having
good taste perception of zinc sulfate 0.1%
was used as impaired taste test ( zinc deficiency) and having
bad taste perception as normal zinc level.
Results:
Regarding to zinc taste test 73.9% of study group had zinc deficiency
(77.6%femal, 69.7% male)
There were no significant relation between zinc deficiency and
measurment of weight and height,but there
was higher prevalence of zinc deficiency in children who were
below the 5th percentile in height and weight
by age.
Conclusion:
70% of preschool children in yazd had zinc deficiency assessed by “ zinc taste
test”,31% of
adolecents in Tehran have had zinc deficiency based on plasma ,
erythrocyte and hairindex. There is no
significant relation between zinc deficiency and antropometric
and demographic data, in this study and the
study that had been done on adolescents in Tehran.Considering
the prevalnce of zinc deficiency with “ Zinc
taste test” ;it seems more accurate studies need to be done like
zinc measurment in WBC,RBC and Platelets
and zinc taste test at the same time,if correlation coefficients
between zinc taste test and other tests were
very strong , we can used zinc tase test in the different age
for assessment of zinc body.