Objective: To investigate the prevalence of vitamin A deficiency (VAD) among pregnant women in rural Bangladesh, and examine the relationship between various factors and vitamin A status. Setting: Community Nutrition Promoter (CNP) centres in Kapasia sub-district of Gazipur district, Bangladesh. Design: A cross-sectional study. Subjects and methods: Two hundred women, aged 18-39 years, in their second or third trimester of pregnancy were selected from seventeen CNP centres in four unions of Kapasia sub-district where they usually visit for antenatal care. Various socio-economic, personal and pregnancy-related information, dietary intake of vitamin A and mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) data were collected. Serum retinol (vitamin A) concentration was determined. Results: More than half (51 %) of the pregnant women had low vitamin A status (serum retinol ,1?05 mmol/l) with 18?5 % having VAD (serum retinol ,0?70 mmol/l). Fifty-three per cent of the women's vitamin A intake was less than the recommended dietary allowance. By multiple regression analysis, MUAC, per-capita expenditure on food and wealth index were found to have significant independent positive relationship with serum retinol concentration, while gestational age of the pregnant women had a negative relationship. The overall F-ratio (10?3) was highly significant (P 5 0?0001), the adjusted R 2 was 0?18 (multiple R 5 0?45).

This article examines a multidisciplinary, ethnically diverse team of researchers and their relationship with the research in which they were engaged: a study of overseas trained doctors (OTDs) recruited to work in health services in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities across four Australian states. The reflexive analysis presented in this article is based on interviews of 13 of the 15 researchers engaged in that project, examining the ways in which the researchers construct their own identities in relation to the research and the commonalities and differences evident within and between clusters of researchers based on their own social and cultural backgrounds and migration histories. The analysis also identifies ways in which discourses emerging from this analysis influence further engagement with the research process itself and the findings of that research by making explicit the assumptions underlying qualitative observations and insights.

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