Nutrient intake of working women in Bangkok, Thailand, as studied by total food duplicate method.

OBJECTIVES: To establish a general view of food habits in Thailand, and to make a quantitative assessment of rice dependency of Thai people. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. SETTING: Community. SUBJECTS: 52 non-smoking and non-habitually drinking adult women in Bangkok participated in the study. METHODS: The participants offered 24 h food duplicates and peripheral blood samples, and underwent clinical examination including anthropometry. The duplicates were subjected to nutritional evaluation taking advantage of the Thai food composition tables (FCTs), and analyzed for eight nutrient elements by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). RESULTS: The participants took 1630 kcal from 55 g protein (63% from animal sources), 57 g lipid (mostly from vegetable oil), and 224 g carbohydrate (60% from rice) daily. Nutrient intake at lunch was as large as that at dinner. About a half of the women had insufficient energy intake (ie <80% RDA) whereas 4% had an excess (>120%). Protein intake was sufficient in most cases, whereas lipid intake was in excess in more than a half of the women. Ca, Fe, Mg, Zn and possibly P intakes were below the RDA values in many participants. FCT-based estimates agreed well with the ICP-MS measures in cases of Fe and Ca but tended to be greater than the measures by 50% with regard to P. CONCLUSIONS: Lunch as substantial as dinner for Thai urbanites. There was a marked dependency on rice as an energy source. Whereas protein intake is generally sufficient, the intake of Ca (and to a lesser extent Fe) was insufficient in a majority of the study participants. SPONSORSHIP: Dai-ichi Mutual Life Insurance, Japan; the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the government of Japan.

Non-occupational lead and cadmium exposure of adult women in Bangkok, Thailand.

This survey was conducted to examine the extent of the exposure of Bangkok citizens to lead (Pb) and cadmium (Cd), and to evaluate the role of rice as the source of these heavy metals. In practice, 52 non-smoking adult women in an institution in the vicinity of Bangkok, volunteered to offer blood, spot urine, boiled rice and 24-h total food duplicate samples. Samples were wet-ashed, and then analyzed for Pb and Cd by ICP-MS. Geometric means for the levels in blood (Pb-B and Cd-B) and urine (Pb-U and Cd-U as corrected for creatinine concentration), and also for dietary intake (Pb-F and Cd-F) were 32.3 micrograms/l for Pb-B, 0.41 microgram/l for Cd-B, 2.06 micrograms/g creatinine for Pb-U, 1.40 micrograms/g creatinine for Cd-U, 15.1 micrograms/day for Pb-F and 7.1 micrograms/day for Cd-F. Rice contributed 30% and 4% of dietary Cd and Pb burden, respectively. When compared with the counterpart values obtained in four neighboring cities in southeast Asia (i.e. Nanning, Tainan, Manila, and Kuala Lumpur), dietary Pb burden of the women in Bangkok was middle in the order among the values for the five cities. Pb level in the blood was the lowest of the levels among the five cities and Pb in urine was also among the low group. This apparent discrepancy in the order between Pb-B (i.e. the fifth) and Pb-F (the third) might be attributable to recent reduction of Pb levels in the atmosphere in Bangkok. Regarding Cd exposure, Cd levels in blood and urine as well as dietary Cd burden of Bangkok women were either the lowest or the next lowest among those in the five cities.

Prevalence of hepatitis B and C virus infection among working women in Bangkok.

A small-scale seroepidemiological survey on hepatitis B and C virus infection was conducted in the vicinity of Bangkok, Thailand, in 1998. Adult women working in a health sciences institution were invited to participate in the study, and 52 subjects (19 to 57 years of age) volunteered to offer peripheral blood. They were non-smoking and non-habitually drinking, and about two thirds of the subjects were married. The sera from the blood samples were assayed for HBsAg, anti-HBs, anti-HBc, and anti-HCV positivities. The serum assay showed that none of the subjects was positive to HBsAg or anti-HCV, but a half of the subjects (50%) were either positive to anti-HBs, to anti-HBc or to the both, thus having experienced HBV infection in the past. The prevalence of the positivities was significantly higher among those at 35-57 years of age than those younger than 35 years. Comparison of the present findings with the results reported in literature suggested that the risk of HBV infection should have been higher than that of HCV infection, that the observed positivity of HBV infection was probably lower than ever reported, and that anti-HCV positivity should be the lowest.

Lymphocyte responsiveness of children supplemented with vitamin A and zinc.

We sought to determine the effect of supplementation with zinc, vitamin A, or a combination of the two on proliferation of T lymphocytes to concanavalin A (ConA), tetanus toxoid (TT), or tuberculin (PPD) of children living in a region endemic for suboptimal vitamin A and zinc intake. The children (n = 140, aged 6-13 y) were randomly assigned and supplemented with either zinc (25 mg/d), vitamin A (1500 mg RE/d), zinc + vitamin A, or placebo for 6 mo. After a baseline blood collection, subjects were boosted with diphtheria-tetanus antigen. Proliferative responsiveness of T lymphocytes to ConA and TT in each treatment group (n = 35) was not different at baseline or postsupplementation. Children supplemented with zinc + vitamin A tended to show higher proliferative responsiveness of T lymphocytes to PPD than did those treated with placebo (P = 0.08). This tendency was observed in females but not in males. Increased zinc and vitamin A intake could result in health benefits for children living in regions endemic for suboptimal micronutrient nutriture.

Effect of vitamin A and zinc supplementation on the nutriture of children in Northeast Thailand.

Previous surveys suggested that young children in Northeast Thailand may benefit from vitamin A and/or zinc supplementation. One hundred thirty-three children aged 6-13 y with marginal plasma retinol (less than 1.05 mumol/L) and Zn (less than 12.2 mumol/L) concentrations participated in a double-blind study. They were randomly assigned and supplemented with either zinc (25 mg/d), vitamin A (1500 RE/d), zinc plus vitamin A, or placebo for 6 mo. Biochemical indices of vitamin A (plasma vitamin A, retinol-binding protein) and zinc status (plasma zinc, alkaline phosphatase) increased significantly. The children had adequate liver stores of vitamin A (relative dose response less than 20%). Zinc supplementation resulted in an improvement in vision restoration time (VRT) in dim light (dark adaptometry). Vitamin A and zinc synergistically normalized conjunctival epithelium as measured by conjunctival impression cytology (CIC). Both functional indices, VRT and CIC, showed significant correlations with plasma zinc and vitamin A, respectively. The data suggest that functional improvements in populations with suboptimal vitamin A and zinc nutriture can be accomplished by supplementation with less than two times the recommended dietary allowance of these nutrients.