A Study on the Zinc Intake and Urinary Excretion of Preschool Children in Busan

Lim, Hwa Jae

Abstract

To assess zinc status by dietary intake and urinary excretion of preschool children in Busan and to evaluate the relationship of intakes of food and nutrient with urinary zinc excretion, zinc food frequencies of 40 common foods affecting intakes of zinc by food fequency method, nutrient intake by 24hr recall and 24hr urinary zinc excretion were measured with 97 preschool children. The mean zinc intake was 4.29 mg and 43.0% of RDA. The mean zinc intake per 1,000 kcal was 3.09 mg.97.9% of subjects had zinc intake less than 75% of RDA. Grains food group was the primary source of zinc intake and supplied 38.9% of the total daily zinc intake. Altogether, plant food products supplied 49.7% of zinc intake. The mean urinary zinc excretion and zinc excretion per gram of creatinine were 0.19 mg and 1.00 mg respectively. The urinary zinc excretion showed positive significant correlations with height and weight (p<0.05, p<0.05) , urine volume and urinary creatinine excretion (p<0.05, p<0.001) , urinary zinc excretion per creatinine (p<0.001) , urinary zinc excretion per weight (p<0.001) , intakes of energy and carbohydrate (p<0.05, p<0.01) and usual intake of zinc from eggs food group (p<0.05) . In conclusion, these results show that the zinc intake of preschool children is low and that sources of dietary zinc are mainly plant foods, suggesting low bioavailability. So nutritional education is needed in order to inc-rease usual intake of animal food group. Interpretation of urinary zinc excretion data is complicated by current uncertainty about "normal" zinc level at this age group. Further studies are needed to obtain extensive data on urinary zinc excretion for this age group.age group.