Overview

This guideline provides global, evidence-informed recommendations on the use of vitamin A supplements in infants and children 6–59 months of age for the reduction of morbidity and mortality.

The guideline will help Member States and their partners in their efforts to make informed decisions on the appropriate nutrition actions to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, in particular, reduction in child mortality (MDG 4). The guideline is intended for a wide audience including policy-makers, their expert advisers, and technical and programme staff in organizations involved in the design, implementation and scaling-up of nutrition actions for public health.

Contents

• Acknowledgements
• Summary
• Scope and purpose
• Background
• Summary of evidence
• Recommendation
• Remarks
• Dissemination, adaptation and implementation
  • Dissemination
  • Adaptation and implementation
  • Monitoring and evaluation of guideline implementation
• Implications for future research
• Guideline development process
  • Advisory groups
  • Scope of the guideline, evidence appraisal and decision-making
• Management of conflicts of interest
• Plans for updating the guideline
• References
• Annex 1 GRADE “Summary of findings” table
• Annex 2 Members of the WHO/UNICEF Steering Committee for guidelines on vitamin A supplementation
• Annex 3 Members of the Vitamin A Supplementation Guideline Group, WHO Secretariat and external resource experts
• Annex 4 Members of the External Experts and Stakeholders Panel
• Annex 5 Questions in Population, Intervention, Control, Outcomes (PICO) format
• Annex 6 Summary of considerations for determining the strength of the recommendation

This publication is a WHO guideline. A WHO guideline is any document, whatever its title, containing WHO recommendations about health interventions, whether they be clinical, public health or policy interventions. A recommendation provides information about what policy-makers, health-care providers or patients should do. It implies a choice between different interventions that have an impact on health and that have ramifications for the use of resources. All publications containing WHO recommendations are approved by the WHO Guidelines Review Committee.

Financial support: WHO thanks the Government of Luxembourg for providing financial support for this work.

Suggested citation:

WHO. Guideline: Vitamin A supplementation in infants and children 6–59 months of age. Geneva, World Health Organization, 2011.

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