Assessment of the Vitamin A Status in Lactating and Nonlactating, Nonpregnant Indonesian Women by Use of the Modified-relative-dose-response (MRDR) Test

The vitamin A statuses of two groups of Indonesian women were compared by using the modified-relative-dose-response (MRDR) test: 1) lactating, nonpregnant women of lower socioeconomic status (n = 64) and 2) better-educated, premenopausal, nonpregnant, nonlactating women (n = 14). At times from 3 to 6 h after dosing, the mean ratio of dehydroretinol to retinol (DR/R) in the serum was approximately threefold higher in the lactating women than in the control group, eg, 0.109 +/- 0.073 and 0.034 +/- 0.015, respectively, at 5 h. At a provisional DR/R cutoff of 0.06, the vitamin A statuses of 70% of the lactating women and of 7% of the control women were judged to be inadequate. Only 7% of the variability in abnormal MRDR ratios could be attributed to body weight. Both abnormal and normal responses were highly reproducible when performed 0.5-3.25 mo after the first test.