structural:expansion, structural:summarization
Epidemiology

Few studies have reported vitamin B status on a national level in non-Western countries. Of these reported studies, vitamin B deficiency was prevalent among school-aged children in Venezuela (11.4%), children aged 1–6 years in Mexico (7.7%), women of reproductive age in Vietnam (11.7%), pregnant women in Venezuela (61.34%) and in the elderly population (> 65 years) in New Zealand (12%). Currently, there are no nationally representative surveys for any African or South Asian countries. However, the very few surveys which have investigated vitamin B deficiency in these countries have been based on local or district level data. These surveys have reported a high prevalence of vitamin B deficiency (< 150 pmol/L), among 36% of breastfed and 9% of non-breastfed children (n = 2482) in New Delhi and 47% of adults (n = 204) in Pune, Maharashtra, India. Furthermore, in Kenya a local district survey in Embu (n = 512) revealed that 40% of school-aged children in Kenya had vitamin B deficiency.