Frequency of zinc deficiency in exclusively breast fed infants presenting in a tertiary care hospital

Aim: to assess the frequency of zinc deficiency in exclusively breast fed infants presenting in a tertiary care hospital. study design: cross-sectional study. setting: department of paediatrics,gujranwala medical college/dhq- teaching hospital,gujranwala. methods: the non-probability consecutive sampling technique was used in this study. after having written informed consent from parents of each infant,demography details like name,age,gestational age at birth and weight were noted. blood samples were taken from each infant and were sent to hospital laboratory to assess the serum zinc level. all this information was noted on a specially designed performa. data was stratified for gender,body weight and socio-economic status. chi-square test was applied to compare zinc deficiency between stratified groups. p-value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. results: in this study,mean age of the patients was 6 months. the male to female ratio of was 1.5:1. mean zinc value of the patients was 13.31+/-7.37ug/dl. zinc deficient infants were 33%. statistically,significant difference was observed between the gender and socioeconomic status with zinc deficiency. conclusion: the prevalence of zinc deficiency in exclusively breast fed infants was 33 % in this study. gender and socio-economic status are important determinants of zinc deficiency. � 2016,lahore medical and dental college. all rights reserved.