Prevalence of vitamin D insufficiency among children in southern china

Abstract

Vitamin D deficiency is associated with numerous public health issues. Limited data are available for children in southern China, a region that receives abundant sunlight. We aimed to estimate the 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) levels in children in that area, and to determine seasonal variations in serum 25(OH)D levels. A total of 16,755 children aged 0 to 6 years, who visited the Guangdong Women and Children's Hospital for health examination between January 2016 and May 2017, were included in the present study. The serum 25(OH)D levels ranged from 10.5 to 307.4 nmol/L (mean ± standard deviation: 78.5 ± 26.3 nmol/L). The prevalence of vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency were 10.8% and 39.0%, respectively. The mean serum 25(OH)D level in spring (71.8 ± 24.9 nmol/L) was lower than that in other seasons. From January to April, we found a relatively high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency or insufficiency, both of which were also found to increase with age. Logistic regression analysis revealed that vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency were significantly associated with age and season. Deficiency and insufficiency of vitamin D are common among children in southern China, despite the area receiving sufficient sunlight.

Prevalence of vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency among 460,537 children in 825 hospitals from 18 provinces in mainland China

“…[ 2 ] Compared with data from other country, the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency/insufficiency in China was similar with that in Mexico, Iran, and worldwide. [ 5 , 12 ] Compared with the study conducted in Guangdong province in China, [ 10 ] the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency in our study was lower than that; the possible reasons were as follows. First, there are differences in the age of the included participants; the study included participants aged 0 to 6 years; however, the age of participants in our study ranged from 0 to 18 years, and it is easier for younger children to be vitamin D deficiency.…”

“…Yu et al [ 8 ] and Liang et al [ 9 ] reported that vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency were prevalent in children of all ages in Shanghai and Nanjing from southeast China. Guo et al [ 10 ] estimated the 25-(OH)D levels in children in southern China and included 16,755 children aged 0 to 6 years; the results showed that the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency were 10.8% and 39.0%, respectively, and they concluded that deficiency and insufficiency of vitamin D are common among children in southern China. However, all these studies are single-center study without good representation.…”

Prevalence of vitamin D status and its association with overweight or obesity in a population of Colombian children and adolescents

“…Vitamin D [25-hydroxyvitamin D (25-OH-D)] is essential for the normal development and metabolism of bone tissue, as well as for calcium and phosphorous homeostasis (1,2) . Similarly, 25-OH-D has several implications for the immune, nervous, cardiovascular and endocrine systems adequate functioning (2) . The 25-OH-D deficiency has a high prevalence in children and adolescents worldwide and it has been related to the risk of developing conditions, such as rickets, osteomalacia, asthma, autism, cancer, depression, obesity and metabolic syndrome, among others (3)(4)(5) .…”

Vitamin D Deficiency in Children

“…or to geographical features, such as sunlight exposure, atmospheric pollution, altitude, latitude, and the season of the year [1,3]. The negative correlation between calcidiol and parathyroid hormone plasma levels has been previously described by different authors [14,17,33,42]; nonetheless, the discussion about the combined oscillations existing among both hormones along a natural year has not been that intense [43,44]. The analysis of our data has shown simultaneous and asynchronous changes in parathyroid hormone levels with respect to calcidiol, simultaneously with monthly and/or seasonal modifications in calcidiol levels.…”