Familial clustering of vitamin D deficiency via shared environment: The Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2008–2012

Abstract

We found a familial clustering of vitamin D deficiency in a large family-based cohort. Parental influence on vitamin D status of offspring was greater in adolescents than in adults.

Family‐related factors may affect serum vitamin D levels

“…1 Vitamin D deficiency is identified by measuring serum 25-hydroxy-vitamin D levels and studies of levels between parents and their offspring, and among siblings, suggest the family environment may play a role. 2 Other risk factors for vitamin D deficiency include adiposity and female gender. 3,4 The current epidemic of obesity is a challenging public health issue worldwide, 5 and a number of factors may contribute to vitamin D deficiencies in obese children.…”

Familial Correlation and Heritability of Hand Grip Strength in Korean Adults (Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2014 to 2019)

“…In a similar context, the fact that sons consumed larger amounts of protein and exercised more often than daughters in the present study might be the possible reason why the risk of weak HGS in sons did not change based on parental HGS, unlike in daughters. Additionally, serum vitamin D levels are known to be linked with HGS [ 43 - 45 ] and prior research has highlighted a familial correlation in serum vitamin D levels, primarily influenced by shared environmental factors rather than genetics [ 46 ]. Therefore, it is possible that the familial correlation of HGS observed in our study may have been driven by the familial correlation in serum vitamin D levels although we were unable to directly examine the impact of serum vitamin D levels on the familial correlation of HGS due to limited serum vitamin D level data for most of our study participants.…”