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OBJECTIVES: To investigate the importance of vitamin A deficiency as a cause of childhood blindness and severe visual impairment (SVI) in India. DESIGN AND SETTING: Cross sectional survey of children with visual acuity less than 6/60 in the better eye (SVI/blindness), attending 22 schools for the blind in nine states of India. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Proportion of children with blindness or SVI from corneal scarring attributable to vitamin A deficiency. RESULTS: 245 of 1318 (18.6%) of children had SVI/blindness attributable to vitamin A deficiency. The proportion of SVI/blindness due to vitamin A deficiency ranged from 7.5% (7/93) in Kerala to 26.7% (27/101) in Madhya Pradesh. In Tamil Nadu, 7.5% (9/120) of children in the capital city blind school had SVI/blindness due to vitamin A deficiency, compared with 30.4% (51/168) in a blind school in a rural area of the same state. CONCLUSION: Overall, vitamin A deficiency is the single most important cause of childhood blindness and SVI in India. There are marked variations by state and also between urban and rural locations.
Rahi et al. (1995) studied this question.