Project profile — Improving Methods to Assess Vitamin A Deficiency

The expected intermediate outcomes for this project include: increased use of the Portable Field Dark Adaptometer (PDFA) in a variety of population settings, including surveys, clinical centres, and monitoring and evaluation programs designed to prevent Vitamin A Deficiency (VAD); the PFDA system is adopted on a national scale to assess population Vitamin A status in Zambia and Bangladesh and implemented by local and national health programs.

Results achieved as of June 2015 include: (1) field testing of the Portable Field Dark Adaptometer (PFDA) performed on 364 Bangladeshi women in the third trimester of pregnancy, and 780 Zambian children aged 4-8 years; (2) the success rate of using the PFDA to assess for vitamin A deficiency rose to 95% from a baseline success rate of 85%, indicating improved use of the technology through adaptive field trials; (3) 90% of pupillary measurements were recorded without missing any of the nine measurements (due to participant compliance and/or flaws in implementation), up from 80% at baseline. This suggests the PFDA has improved its success in conducting complete assessments for vitamin A deficiency, and that most trials were eligible for research purposes; (4) successful clinical results indicating the PFDA is a sensitive and reliable device to capture the known dose-response relationship between light intensity and pupillary reaction; and (5) overall, the PFDA has seen great improvements from baseline, and results suggest the technology will be successful as a field tool to assess those considered to be at risk for night blindness and vitamin A deficiency.