Evaluation of Serum Zinc Level in Children Under 5 Years with Malnutrition

Introduction : Zinc deficiency decreases appetite, stunts the growth and increases incidence of infection and if zinc deficiency persists it may cause short stature and delay in puberty. The aim of this research is to specify the level of serum zinc in children with growth disorder and weight gaining. Methods : This cross sectional descriptive study was done on 460 children under 5 years who were underweight. After doing necessary examinations and recording the information, 5 cc of blood was drawn from children. The samples were sent to the chemistry college of S&B university and serum zinc levels were measured by spectrometry method of atomic absorption. The obtained information was analyzed using SPSS software and Fisher test. Results : In this research on 460 children, 232 (50.43%) were boys and 228 (49.56 %) were girls. The average age was 2.5 years. Zinc deficiency was confirmed in 89.3 % of children who had mild malnutrition and all of children who had moderate or severe malnutrition had zinc deficiency. Conclusion : This research indicated that serum zinc levels in most of children with malnutrition was less than standard , and the more severe the malnutrition, the lower the serum zinc levels will be. 100% of the girls and 85.77% of the boys had zinc deficiency.