Vitamin D deficiency in children and adolescents

Objective: vitamin d deficiency is an important health problem in both developed and developing countries. recent reports on the extraskeletal effects of vitamin d have led to increased interest in prevalence studies on states of deficiency/insufficiency of vitamin d. the aim of this study was to determine the frequency of vitamin d deficiency and insufficiency in children and adolescents residing in ankara,turkey and to investigate the factors associated with low vitamin d status. methods: a total of 440 children and adolescents aged between 0 and 16 years were enrolled in this study. the subjects were divided into three groups according to their vitamin d status (deficiency ≤15 ng/ml; insufficiency: 15-20 ng/ml; sufficiency ≥20 ng/ml) and also according to their age (preschool<5 years; middle childhood: 5-10 years; adolescence: 11-16 years). results: overall,40% of the subjects were found to have 25 hydroxy vitamin d [25(oh)d] levels of less than 20 ng/ml. the levels indicated a deficiency state in 110 subjects (25%) and insufficiency - in 66 (15%). the rate of vitamin d deficiency was higher in girls,regardless of age. 25(oh)d levels correlated negatively with age (r=-0.48,p<0.001),body mass index (bmi) (r=-0.20,p=0.001) and intact parathyroid hormone (ipth) level (r=-0.31,p=0.001). a positive correlation was observed between 25(oh)d and serum ferritin levels (r=0.15,p=0.004). conclusions: the high frequency of vitamin d deficiency in childhood (especially among adolescent girls) indicates a need for supplementation and nutritional support. © journal of clinical research in pediatric endocrinology,published by galenos publishing.