Anemia, deficiencias de hierro y de vitamina A y helmintiasis en una población rural del estado Lara

the aim of this research was to determine the prevalence of anaemia, iron and vitamin a deficiencies and the level of helminthiasis in the rural community of la escalera, andres eloy blanco municipality, lara state, venezuela. the study subjects were 104 individuals between 1 and 14 years old. hemoglobin was measured with a coulter act 8; ferritin by elisa; plasmatic retinol by hplc and the coproparasitologic study by the cualitative kato method. statistical analyses were performed using spss 11.0 program by means of one way anova, followed by duncan, games-hoewel or kruskal-wallis tests. correlations analyses were done using pearson or spearman tests. the prevalence of anaemia was 14.42%, iron deficiency 59.62%, ferropenic anaemia 11.54% and vitamin a deficiency 84.54%. the prevalence of intestinal helminthiasis was 42.17% and the áscaris lumbricoides was the most frequent helminth. the group under two years old was the most affected in relation to all the parameters measured. the high prevalence of parasitic individuals, ferropenic anaemia and iron and vitamin a deficiencies, show an important problem of nutrition in relation to iron and vitamin a, it could be due to the insufficiency of nutrients and inappropriate life conditions.