ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Nutr.
Sec. Nutritional Epidemiology
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnut.2025.1673576
This article is part of the Research TopicNutritional Challenges and Innovations in Extreme EnvironmentsView all 4 articles
A Comprehensive Analysis of Vitamin A Deficiency Burden and Trends: Insights from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021 and Future Predictions to 2050
Provisionally accepted
- 1The Second Affiliated Hospital and Yuying Children's Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, China
- 2Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Background: Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) continues to pose a significant public health challenge, particularly in low socio-demographic index (SDI) regions, contributing to increased infections, blindness, and child mortality. Its causes include poor diets, absorption issues, and infectious diseases. Objective: To comprehensively assess the global trends and burden of Vitamin A Deficiency from 1990 to 2021 and to forecast the global VAD-related burden from 2022 to 2050. Methods: This investigation employed data from the GBD 2021 database to analyze the global burden of nutritional deficiencies attributable to VAD. Disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) and years lived with disability (YLDs) were systematically evaluated by gender, age groups, geographic regions, and countries over the 32-year study period (1990-2021). Temporal trends in age-standardized DALYs rate (ASDR) and age-standardized YLDs rate (ASYR) were quantified using estimated annual percentage change (EAPC) analysis. Projections of future burden were generated using exponential smoothing (ES) and autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) models. Results: In 2021, the global burden of VAD was 1,104,931 DALYs, down from 1,970,337 in 1990. The ASDR dropped from 32.56 in 1990 to 15.73 in 2021, with an EAPC of -2.81%. Males had higher ASDR than females, both showing significant declines. The greatest burden was in the < 5-year-old age group. An inverse SDI-ASDR associations was evident, with high-SDI regions achieving the fastest rate reductions. Projections to 2050 using ARIMA and ES models predicted a continued decrease in DALYs, with faster declines in males, although the ES model suggested a stabilization in DALYs for both genders. Conclusion: The GBD 2021 data underscored the persistent global challenge of addressing VAD. Solving this issue necessitates comprehensive strategies that combine targeted interventions, policy reforms, and collaborative efforts.
Keywords: Nutritional deficiencies, Vitamin A Deficiency, Global burden of disease, future predictions, Public Health
Received: 26 Jul 2025; Accepted: 06 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Hu, Lyu, Li, Lin, Li, Bu and Zhao. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Qianlei Zhao, wzmczhql@wmu.edu.cn
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.