Data availability for assessing adequacy of micronutrient intake in potentially vulnerable groups in Europe

Objective: To collect the best data for assessing nutritional adequacy in intake for EURRECA (Network of Excellence – EURopean micronutrient RECommendations Aligned) prioritized micronutrients in vulnerable groups (vitamin C, folate, vitamin B12, vitamin D, calcium, iron, zinc, iodine, selenium and copper) in Europe. Methods: The literature search was targeted towards identifying the nutritional intake data in low income and immigrant populations, pregnant and lactating women as these populations were poorly represented by European Nutrition Health Report and the inventory made by Flynn et al. Structured Medline searches (plus Embase and Cochrane searches for ‘lactation’) were performed from inception applying ‘lactation’ and ‘pregnancy’ as MeSH terms and ‘low income’ and ‘immigrant’ as text words. Original studies were included if 1) performed in European Union after 1990; 2) representative populations and n > 100. 3) dietary assessment method should be based on at least 3 days of collection or validated FFQs (Food Frequency Questionnaires) for the specified micronutrients. Results: With respect to EURRECA inclusion criteria, 5 studies have been found on low income and immigrant population and only 7 on pregnant women, whereas no data has been found on lactating women. Conclusions: To provide general evidence on current nutritional situation in Europe, micronutrient intake of low income and immigrant populations, pregnant and lactating women needs more attention as the data for these potentially vulnerable groups is lacking. Acknowledgement: The studies reported herein have been carried out within the EURRECA Network of Excellence (www.eurreca.org), financially supported by the Commission of the European Communities, specific Research, Technology and Development (RTD) Programme Quality of Life and Management of Living Resources, within the Sixth Framework Programme, contract no. 036196.