Objective To assess the vitamin A status in the primary and secondary school students in Qiongzhong county,Hainan,China,and to provide bases for the prevention of adolescents' vitamin A deficiency. Methods Students were sampled using stratified cluster sampling methods.Two primary schools and two secondary schools were randomly selected and then one class was chosen from each grade.Serum retinol concentrations were measured using a high performance liquid chromatography method. Results A total of 561 students were investigated,the mean serum retinol concentration was (360.36±91.39)ng/mL,and no significant difference between the boys and the girls was found(P>0.05),yet the serum retinol concentration got higher as the age growing(P＜0.05).Only 2.0% of investigated students had vitamin A deficiency (serum retinol ≤200 ng/mL),but 22.3% of them had vitamin A marginal deficiency (200～300 ng/mL),and both of them were not different in genders(P＞0.05),yet the vitamin A marginal deficiency rate decreased with the age increasing (P<0.05). Conclusions Primary and secondary school students in Qiongzhong county have a relatively low vitamin A deficiency rate,yet a remarkably high rate of vitamin A marginal deficiency,surveillance should be done continuously as well as prevention and control measures,especially among students aged 6 to 7 years old.