Analysis of vitamin a serum profile in patients attended at a tertiary healthcare teaching hospital laboratory

Aim: Characterize the Vitamin A serum profile, by means of lab exams done in Brazilian patients, from 2012 to 2016, in a Tertiary Teaching-Hospital laboratory, correlating it with gender, age range, and health care systems types - Public or Private, correlating it with gender, age range and types of health care systems. Material and Method: Retrospective, descriptive work using 234 Vitamin A serum dosage reports performed in routine consultations. Data collected: gender, age, whether by Public or Private health care system. Results: Female patients done 181 (77%) Vitamin A exams and male 53 (33%).Private health care system done 222 (95%) exams, and Public system: 12 (5%) (p = 0.4762).Male patients’ age, in the Public system, varied from 56 to 69 years (M = 62.5 years; SD ± 5.86) and in Private, it varied from 2 to 81 years (M = 43.4 years; SD ± 18.39) (p = 0.0312).Female patients’ age in Public system varied from 19 to 60 years (M = 40.87 years; SD ± 12.99) and for the Private, it varied from 7 to 84 years (M = 44.23 years; SD ± 15.11) (p = 0.6388).The age ranges with the highest requests were adult (44.9%) and young adult (42.3%) (p = 0.9341). Conclusion: There has been a higher prevalence in the request of Vitamin A exams for female patients in the Private system. Levels of Vitamin A Deficiency were found in both genders, in adult and young adult age ranges, exclusively in the Private system.