Abstract
The relationship between serum retinol and alpha-tocopherol levels of 100 students (aged from 21–30 years) of the University of Dhaka, Dhaka, Bangladesh, was investigated. Further, the associations of these two vitamins with some selected personal characteristics were also studied. Males had a significantly higher level of serum retinol and a lower level of alphatocopherol than females. No significant difference was observed between age groups either for serum retinol or alpha-tocopherol levels. No differences were noted for marital status, residential status and per capita expenditure on food. A positive correlation was observed between serum retinol and alpha-tocopherol levels for males (r = 0.34; P ≤ 0.035) and females (r = 0.32; P ≤ 0.01) separately. The multiple correlation coefficient between serum retinol and all other variables of the study was R = 0.55 and adjusted R2 was 0.25 (P = 0.000). In the case of alpha-tocopherol the multiple R and adjusted R2 were 0.52 and 0.22 (P = 0.000) respectively. The findings suggest that there is a positive relationship between the serum levels of retinol and alpha-tocopherol even after adjustments have been made for the effect of personal factors.