vitamin d supplementation and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol: a study in healthy school children

Background: the high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (hdl-c) level has been shown to have a significant role in the prevention of cardiovascular diseases and atherosclerosis. low vitamin d levels have been shown to be correlated with dyslipidemia, but limited data exist on indigenous children. objectives: we aimed to investigate the effect of vitamin d supplementation on hdl-c levels in school-aged iranian children. methods: in this prospective controlled clinical trial, 47 healthy children (23 boys) aged 10 - 14 years, students of birjand (iran) elementary schools, were selected and randomly divided into two groups. the study group received a vitamin d supplement (1000 mg capsule) daily for one month, and placebo tablets were prescribed to the controls. before and after the treatment course, the serum hdl-c and 25-hydroxy vitamindlevels of both groups were measured. the data were analyzed by spss, ver. 16, and chi-square tests, fisher’s exact test, paired-sample t-tests, and pearson’s correlation were used, wherever appropriate. the significance level was set at p < 0.05. results: forty children completed the study; their mean age was 11.5±1.175 years. the mean serum levels of both hdl-c and vitamin dshowed a significant rise following the treatment in the study group (p = 0.007 and p< 0.001, respectively), whereas both variables decreased slightly in the control group (p = 0.27). there was no statistically significant difference in the mean serum levels of hdl-c and vitamin d between the two groups after the intervention (p = 0.11 and p = 0.20, respectively). conclusions: vitamin d supplements seem to have a positive impact on serum hdl-c levels and may be effective in reducing the risk of cardiovascular diseases in the long term.