Abstract
Background: Zinc is an important element for growth, brain actions and an essential cofactor for enzymes such as DNA and RNA polymerase. Objective: To determine the status of zinc in school girls in Zahedan. Methods: In a descriptive study, 1300 girls with mean age of 15.7±1.6 were selected by multistage radom sampling method. The zinc value in the specimen serums was determined and then chronological and menstruating age, weight, height, and body mass index (BMI) were recorded. Findings: 42.8% of the subjects had zinc value below the standard level. The risk of zinc deficiency was much higher in public schools than private schools. There was no correlation between serum Zn and BMI (P>0.05) but there was a negative and significant correlation between serum Zn and age (r=-0.20, P<0.00001). Conclusion: Further studied on zinc deficiency and administration of zinc supplements are recommended.
Keywords
Copyright
© 2024, Journal of Inflammatory Diseases. This open-access article is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 (CC BY-NC 4.0) International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which allows for the copying and redistribution of the material only for noncommercial purposes, provided that the original work is properly cited.