Vitamin A supplementation coverage

Children aged 6−59 months who received vitamin A supplementation (% of doses)

Percent of children aged 6–59 months who received two age-appropriate doses of vitamin A in the past 12 months.


Number of children who received two age-appropriate doses of vitamin A supplements in the last 12 months.


Number of children aged 6−59 months in the survey.


Age, place of residence, sex, socioeconomic status.


In accordance with WHO’s 2011 guidelines on vitamin A supplementation in infants and children aged 6–59 months.


Household surveys

Routine facility information systems


The indicator is defined as the proportion of children aged 6–59 months who received two age-appropriate doses of vitamin A supplements in the last 12 months. This indicator measures the coverage achieved through national vitamin A supplementation program efforts in a specified period.

Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) is a major public health problem in developing countries. WHO estimates that between 100 and 140 million children are vitamin A deficient. For children, lack of vitamin A causes visual impairment, blindness, and significantly increases the risk of severe illness and death from common childhood infections such as diarrheal disease and measles. Supplementation as a vitamin A deficiency control strategy is the most immediate and direct approach to improving vitamin A status and the one most widely implemented.

Programmes to control vitamin A deficiency enhance children’s chances of survival, reduce the severity of childhood illnesses, ease the strain on health systems and hospitals and contribute to the well-being of children, their families and communities. Supplementation with vitamin A is a safe, cost-effective, efficient means for eliminating its deficiency and improving child survival.


This indicator is a coverage indicator and does not provide any information regarding the prevalence of vitamin A deficiency (as manifested by night blindness, bitot spots, and corneal scarring). Although oral supplementation is used for both treatment and prevention of vitamin A deficiency, it is not recommended as the only longterm approach. In the home, vitamin A deficiency can be prevented by the regular consumption of vitamin A-rich foods, including fortified foods.

Service statistics are relatively inexpensive to collect and can be obtained at more frequent intervals than surveys. However, they are generally not representative of an entire population. Since the quality of health statistics can vary among facilities, indicators calculated from service statistics may be less accurate than those based on survey data in places where the quality of routine data is poor. In addition, it may be difficult to estimate the denominator for indicators based on service statistics. The population denominators are often extrapolated from census data that are several years old. If population growth and rural-urban migration patterns have substantially changed over time, then census information may be unsuitable for providing appropriate denominators for local program managers to determine vitamin A supplementation coverage.


Pediatric care, Nutrition, Child health

World Health Organization (WHO). 2015 Global Reference List of 100 Core Health Indicators.; 2015. http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/173589/1/WHO_HIS_HSI_2015.3_eng.pdf

World Health Organization. Nutrition Landscape Information System (NLIS). Country Profile Indicators: Interpretation Guide. Geneva, Switzerland; 2010. http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/44397/1/9789241599955_eng.pdf

Gage AJ, Ali D, Suzuki C. A Guide for Monitoring and Evaluating Child Health Programs. MEASURE Evaluation. Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.; 2005.  http://www.coregroup.org/storage/documents/Workingpapers/ms-05-15.pdf

 

Further information and related links

Countdown to 2015 decade report (2000−2010): taking stock of maternal, newborn and child survival. Geneva and New York (NY): World Health Organization/United Nations Children’s Fund; 2010 (Retrieved from http://www.countdown2015mnch.org/reports-and-articles/previous-reports/2010-decadereport).

Ending preventable child deaths from pneumonia and diarrhoea by 2025. The integrated Global Action Plan for Pneumonia and Diarrhoea (GAPPD). Geneva: World Health Organization/United Nations Children’s Fund; 2013 (Retrieved from http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/79200/1/9789241505239_eng.pdf?ua=1).

Guideline: Vitamin A supplementation in infants and children 6–59 months of age. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2011 (Retrieved from http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/44664/1/9789241501767_eng.pdf?ua=1&ua=1).

Standard foreign assistance indicators/standard foreign assistance master indicator list (MIL). Washington (DC): United States Agency for International Development (Retrieved from http://www.state.gov/f/indicators/index.htm).

World health statistics 2014. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2014 (Retrieved from http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/112738/1/9789240692671_eng.pdf?ua=1)

Filed under: Child health , Nutrition , Pediatric care