Use of carotene-rich foods to combat vitamin A deficiency in India--a multicentric study by the Nutrition Foundation of India.

Vitamin A deficiency in India ranks among the four major public health nutritional problems affecting not only children but also women of the reproductive age group and others. However, a noticeable change that has occurred in the last two decades is the very marked decline in serious forms of this deficiency leading to a decline in keratomalacia and hence nutritional blindness. The problem to contend with now is the less severe but more widespread moderate deficiency leading to night-blindness and/or Bitot's spots and low serum levels of vitamin A, with their attendant functional impairment.