Vitamin D status and determinants in Indian children and adolescents: a multicentre study

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 12; no. 1; pp. 16790 - 13
• Main Authors: Khadilkar, Anuradha, Kajale, Neha, Oza, Chirantap, Oke, Rashmi, Gondhalekar, Ketan, Patwardhan, Vivek, Khadilkar, Vaman, Mughal, Zulf, Padidela, Raja
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 06.10.2022; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 631/1647; 692/163; 692/700; Adolescents; Anthropometry; Body weight; Children; Demography; Dietary supplements; Humanities and Social Sciences; Liquid chromatography; Mass spectrometry; Mass spectroscopy; multidisciplinary; Nutrient deficiency; Overweight; Public health; Regression analysis; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Statistical sampling; Teenagers; Vitamin D; Vitamin deficiency
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-21279-0

Studies performed on Indian children to assess vitamin-D status have been on small sample sizes, limited to specific geographical locations and used non-standard methods to measure 25(OH)D 3 . This multicentre study assessed 25(OH)D 3 concentrations from dried blood spots (DBS) in 5–18-year-old Indian children and adolescents using a standardized protocol and identified factors contributing towards vitamin D deficiency. Cross-sectional, observational school-based study was conducted by multi-stage stratified random sampling. A city and nearby village were selected from 6 Indian states covering wide geographical areas. Demography, anthropometry, body-composition, dietary-intakes and DBS samples were collected. 25(OH)D 3 was assessed from DBS using Liquid chromatography with tandem-mass spectrometry. Vitamin-D status was assessed in 2500 children; with additional data collected on a subset (n = 669) to assess predictors. Mean vitamin-D concentration was 45.8 ± 23.9 nmol/L, 36.8% of subjects had sufficient vitamin-D (> 50 nmol/L); rural subjects and boys had higher concentrations ( p  < 0.05). On regression analysis, younger age, female-gender, overweight and urban residence significantly contributed to deficiency. More than half the Indian children/adolescents were vitamin-D deficient or insufficient. Our study reinforces vitamin-D deficiency as a major public health problem and the need for supplementation, food fortification and educating the population as initiatives required to improve sufficiency status.