Background: Zinc is an essential nutrient for all forms of life and its deficiency affects the
normal growth and development of human beings. Objective: The main aim was to investigate zinc
nutritional status by serum zinc concentration (SZC) and dietary zinc intake and their association
in cystic fibrosis (CF) patients. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in CF patients.
Anthropometric measurements and respiratory and pancreatic tests were conducted.
Hypozincemia was determined by SZC while using atomic absorption spectrophotometry and
dietary zinc deficiency by prospective 72-h dietary surveys. Results: Mean SZC (87.2 ± 16.7 μg/dL)
and dietary zinc intake (97 ± 26.9% Dietary Reference Intake) were normal. Three of 17 patients
with CF (17.6%) had hypozincemia and four (23.5%) had a dietary zinc deficiency. No patient with
dietary zinc deficiency had hypozincemia. A positive and significant association was observed
between SZC and Z-score of BMI-for-age (p = 0.048) and weight-for-height (p = 0.012) and between
dietary zinc intake and energy intake (EI, p = 0.036) and Z-score of weight-for-high (p = 0.029).
Conclusion: SZC was associated with the nutritional status, expressed as BMI (Body Mass Index)
and weight-for-height Z score, and dietary zinc intake with EI and weight-for-height Z-score. No
patient with hypozincemia had dietary zinc deficiency. This situation should alert us to a marginal
zinc deficiency and it may explain why there were no overlapping cases between the two groups.
We suggest that probably 41% of the cases in this study would be at elevated risk of zinc deficiency
and a zinc supplementation may be considered.
