Vitamin D status among indigenous Mayan (Kekchi) and Afro-Caribe (Garifuna) adolescents from Guatemala: a comparative description between two ethnic groups residing on the Rio Dulce at the Caribbean coast in Izabal Province, Guatemala

Abstract

Despite residing in an optimal geographic location for sunlight exposure, nearly 65 % of study adolescents were either insufficient or deficient in vitamin D. Correction and long-term prevention of this nutritional problem may be instrumental in avoiding adverse effects in adulthood attributed to low 25(OH)D during adolescence.

Correlates and family aggregation of vitamin D concentrations in school-aged children and their parents in nine Mesoamerican countries

“…These values are substantially higher than the estimates in our study. Similarly, VDD was much more prevalent in indigenous Mayan adolescents living near the coast (21 %) (1) than in our study from Mesoamerica. These differences suggest that there is high within-and between-country variation in vitamin D status in children from the Mesoamerican region.…”

“…Few studies have investigated the prevalence of VDD in Mesoamerica. In a study of Guatemalan adolescents, 12·8 % had VDD, defined as serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) concentration <50 nmol/l ( 1 ) . In clinic-based studies of adults in Puerto Rico ( 2 , 3 ) and among older adults from Mexico ( 4 ) , the prevalence of VDD was 36·0 and 36·9 %, respectively.…”

Vitamin D research and public health nutrition: a current perspective

“…The nineteen vitamin D research papers featured in this issue explore a number of important research gaps that are vital to our understanding of the need for food fortification or supplementation programmes in less studied low-and middle-income countries and high-risk populations in higher-income countries (40)(41)(42)(43)(44)(45)(46)(47)(48)(49)(50)(51)(52)(53)(54)(55)(56)(57)(58) . The majority of these studies examined aspects of global vitamin D deficiency and association with health risks (40,42,43,(45)(46)(47)(48)(50)(51)(52)(53)(56)(57)(58) .…”

“…The majority of these studies examined aspects of global vitamin D deficiency and association with health risks (40,42,43,(45)(46)(47)(48)(50)(51)(52)(53)(56)(57)(58) . Two explored the impact or need for a national vitamin D food fortification programme due to seasonal challenges or deviation from traditional diets (44,54) , while one explored the efficacy of vitamin D supplement use in a vulnerable population (41) and two determined the influence of season and sunlight availability year-round on vitamin D status (49,55) . Several studies used nationally representative data from higher-income countries that included different race/ ethnicity groups, allowing assessment of confounding anthropomorphic influences such as waist circumference, BMI, serum lipids and skin pigmentation (46,52,53) .…”

“…Many used state-of-theart standardized assay methodology, i.e. LC-MS/MS (43,47,48,54) , while others used EIA, RIA, CLIA (42,45,(49)(50)(51)(52)(53)(55)(56)(57) or HPLC (40) to analyse serum 25(OH)D concentrations, and some reported some standardization (47,48,53,56) . These differences emphasize our need to standardize the assays used to clearly understand the global extent of vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency.…”