DISCLAIMERThe present document has been produced and adopted by the bodies identified above as author(s). This task has been carried out exclusively by the author(s) in the context of a contract between the European Food Safety Authority and the author(s), awarded following a tender procedure. The present document is published complying with the transparency principle to which the Authority is subject. It may not be considered as an output adopted by the Authority. The European Food Safety Authority reserves its rights, view and position as regards the issues addressed and the conclusions reached in the present document, without prejudice to the rights of the authors. The present document has been produced and adopted by the bodies identified above as author(s). This task has been carried out exclusively by the author(s) in the context of a contract between the European Food Safety Authority and the author(s), awarded following a tender procedure. The present document is published complying with the transparency principle to which the Authority is subject. It may not be considered as an output adopted by the Authority. Studies conducted in populations with diseases assumed to affect vitamin D metabolism were excluded. Selection of articles followed a stepwise process, starting with title and abstract screening, followed by full text screening that was registered using in/out forms. At the start of both phases, 10% of the screening was performed in duplicate. To align screening and sorting, inconsistencies in inclusion and exclusion were discussed in a review team until consensus was reached. Studies were sorted by age group: 1) infants, 2) children and adolescents, and 3) adults. In addition, hand searches using relevant literature reviews were conducted to identify studies that were not retrieved by the systematic search of the three databases. Extraction of data of articles identified as being relevant was shared by two researchers.
ResultsSearching Medline, Embase and Cochrane resulted in 2,257, 6,644 and 641 hits respectively, resulting in 7,807 unique hits after removal of duplicates. On the basis of title and abstract screening, 6,484 items could be excluded. Thus, 1,323 articles needed to be assessed by full text screening. Twenty-two articles were added to these 1,323 articles, following hand searches of 10 reviews. After critical evaluation, 17 articles reported on data in populations that were assumed to have an altered vitamin D metabolism; 72 articles were excluded either because dietary vitamin D intake data were not reported (n=62) or because dietary intake data were obtained by a non-validated method (n=10); 469 articles were excluded because they did not fulfil the criteria of minimal endogenous vitamin D synthesis; 280 articles did not measure or report serum/plasma 25(OH)D; 65 articles did not examine vitamin D 2 or vitamin D 3 as the exposure (but, for instance, a vitamin D metabolite that was not relevant to this review or a medicine, n=59), or did not report an exact dose (n=6); 139 articles...