Objective: To investigate the prevalence of vitamin A deficiency among adolescent female factory workers in Bangladesh, and examine the association between various factors and vitamin A status. Design: A cross-sectional study. Setting: Garment factories in Dhaka city, Bangladesh. Subjects: Three hundred and eighty eight adolescent girls aged 12–19 y from ten garment factories were selected randomly for the present study. Information on socio-economic conditions and usual pattern of dietary intake were obtained by interview. Anthropometric data and blood samples were collected following the interview. Results: By NCHS reference standard, 15.5% of the participants were thin (120% Wt/Ht). In about 56%, serum vitamin A level was below the adequate level of 1.05 µmol/l, with 14% having vitamin A deficiency (r=0.12; P=0.023). When age, level of education, per-capita income, haemoglobin concentration, serum protein concentration, menstruation at the time of blood collection, prevalence of current morbidity, frequency of intake of egg, milk, small fish, DGLV, liver and sweet pumpkin were accounted for by multiple regression analysis, a strong relationship was found for serum vitamin A concentration with age, menstruation, haemoglobin level and frequency of intake of DGLV. For every unit change in the frequency of consumption of DGLV, there was 0.013 µmol/l change in serum vitamin A level whilst taking other factors into account. Conclusion: The data show that there is a high prevalence of subclinical vitamin A deficiency among the adolescent female garment factory workers in Bangladesh, although the anthropometric indices suggest that they do not suffer from acute undernutrition. Consumption of DGLV appears to have an important relation with the vitamin A status of these girls. Sponsorship: University of Dhaka, Bangladesh and UNICEF, Dhaka (for HPLC).