The aim: To evaluate the awareness of folic acid, its use and effects, general knowledge about neural tube defects among medical students in Ukraine.
Materials and methods: This cross-sectional survey was conducted by questioning 114 fourth and fifth years’ students of the Faculty of Medicine. The questionnaire contained questions about folic acid, its dietary sources, effects and periconceptional uses; spina bifida and its main symptoms.
Results: Overall, 96.5% of students knew that folic acid was a vitamin and 95.6% were aware of the one natural product which had a high folate level. However, awareness of its amount in different products was insufficient. Overall, 86.8% of surveyed knew that folic acid deficiency during pregnancy caused the congenital malformations. The knowledge of the synthetic folic acid supplementation before and during pregnancy was low (67.5% and 53.5% respectively). Only 10 % of women among medical students consumed folic acid regularly.
Conclusions: Despite the high level of general knowledge about folic acid and its effects among medical students in Ukraine, there is a poor awareness of the pre-conception administration of folic acid, and the number of people who regularly take folic acid among the respondents was very low.
Based on the analysis of literary sources, this review highlights the main reasons and mechanisms of zinc impact on the development of immunodeficiency conditions in children. The study outlines the importance of zinc homeostasis in the functioning of innate and adaptive immunity. The multifaceted influence of zinc on the activity of the immune system includes the regulation of maturing, differentiation, activity of innate immunity cells (neutrophils, monocytes-macrophages, mast cells, natural killers, dendrite cells) and adaptive immunity cells (T-lymphocytes and B-lymphocytes), activation of interferon synthesis, regulation of the activity of inflammation process, participation in signalling pathways of antigen presentation to the highly specific immune cells, and support of the antioxidant status in the child's organism. The role of zinc status in antiviral immunity, particularly in COVID-19 infection, is considered. A risk group for the development of zinc deficiency and immunodeficiency conditions is identified.
This paper presents the results of the vitamin and trace element status of children with primary immunodeficiency. The frequency of vitamin D and zinc deficiency in children's blood serum was determined. Special attention was payed to the study of food s
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