Changes in vitamin A intake following the social marketing of red palm oil among children and women in Burkina Faso

Département de nutrition, Université de Montréal, CP 6128, succ. centre-ville, Montréal Qc H3C 3J7, Canada.

This paper focuses on changes in vitamin A (VA) intakes as part of the evaluation of a pilot project on social marketing of red palm oil (RPO) as a VA supplement for mothers and children in central-north Burkina Faso. The objectives of the 30-month project are to demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of introducing RPO in non-consuming areas. RPO is collected from women in the South-West region and it is sold in project sites by village volunteers. RPO is promoted by community workers trained in persuasive communication and social marketing. The target population is free to buy and consume RPO. Evaluation design includes data collected at onset, then 12 and 24 months later, from the same sample of 210 mothers and their children randomly selected in seven project sites. Children were 1 to 3 years old at onset. Blood samples were collected at baseline from mothers and children for serum retinol determination by HPLC. VA intakes are estimated by a semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire, using the conventional beta-carotene to retinol conversion factors and the newly revised lower factors. VA deficiency is a major public health problem in the area: 64% of mothers and 85% of children had serum retinol concentrations < href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11943637?dopt=Abstract">www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11943637?dopt=Abstract