Abstract:

Introduction: In India, vitamin B12 deficiency is not uncommon, especially in vegetarians.  Not many studies are there on B12 deficiency in infancy. Objective: To measure prevalence of vitamin B12 deficiency in infants and to look for correlation of B12 status with neurodevelopmental delay. Methods: This cross sectional study was carried out at a tertiary care hospital in Northern India. Infants between 1-12 months of age coming for unrelated illnesses were enrolled. Serum B12 and folate levels were measured and developmental assessment was done by Denever Development Screening Test II (DDST II). Results: A total of 200 patients were enrolled consisting of 71% boys. Mean age of participants was 5.97±3.32 months. On DDST testing, 8% were found untestable, 71% had normal DDST result and    21% were suspect. Only 6 children below four months of age had suspect DDST. Forty three children(21.5%) were vitamin B12 deficient (levels<211pg/ml). While comparing B12 deficient and sufficient group, children found untestable on DDST were excluded, so only 184 children were analysed, out of them 39 were B12 deficient and 145 were B12 sufficient. In B12 deficient group, 53.8% (21/39) were DDST suspect whereas in B12 sufficient group 15.2% (22/145) were DDST suspect( p value<.0001 ). There was statistically significant correlation between B12 deficiency and abnormal DDST result. Conclusion: Vitamin B12 deficiency is prevalent in infancy and is related to neurodevelopmental delay.