1
|
Boucher BJ. Vitamin D deficiency in British South Asians, a persistent but avoidable problem associated with many health risks (including rickets, T2DM, CVD, COVID-19 and pregnancy complications): the case for correcting this deficiency. Endocr Connect 2022; 11:e220234. [PMID: 36149836 PMCID: PMC9641767 DOI: 10.1530/ec-22-0234] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/27/2022] [Accepted: 09/23/2022] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
High vitamin D deficiency rates, with rickets and osteomalacia, have been common in South Asians (SAs) arriving in Britain since the 1950s with preventable infant deaths from hypocalcaemic status-epilepticus and cardiomyopathy. Vitamin D deficiency increases common SA disorders (type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease), recent trials and non-linear Mendelian randomisation studies having shown deficiency to be causal for both disorders. Ethnic minority, obesity, diabetes and social deprivation are recognised COVID-19 risk factors, but vitamin D deficiency is not, despite convincing mechanistic evidence of it. Adjusting analyses for obesity/ethnicity abolishes vitamin D deficiency in COVID-19 risk prediction, but both factors lower serum 25(OH)D specifically. Social deprivation inadequately explains increased ethnic minority COVID-19 risks. SA vitamin D deficiency remains uncorrected after 70 years, official bodies using 'education', 'assimilation' and 'diet' as 'proxies' for ethnic differences and increasing pressures to assimilate. Meanwhile, English rickets was abolished from ~1940 by free 'welfare foods' (meat, milk, eggs, cod liver oil), for all pregnant/nursing mothers and young children (<5 years old). Cod liver oil was withdrawn from antenatal clinics in 1994 (for excessive vitamin A teratogenicity), without alternative provision. The take-up of the 2006 'Healthy-Start' scheme of food-vouchers for low-income families with young children (<3 years old) has been poor, being inaccessible and poorly publicised. COVID-19 pandemic advice for UK adults in 'lockdown' was '400 IU vitamin D/day', inadequate for correcting the deficiency seen winter/summer at 17.5%/5.9% in White, 38.5%/30% in Black and 57.2%/50.8% in SA people in representative UK Biobank subjects when recruited ~14 years ago and remaining similar in 2018. Vitamin D inadequacy worsens many non-skeletal health risks. Not providing vitamin D for preventing SA rickets and osteomalacia continues to be unacceptable, as deficiency-related health risks increase ethnic health disparities, while abolishing vitamin D deficiency would be easier and more cost-effective than correcting any other factor worsening ethnic minority health in Britain.
Collapse
|
2
|
Mold A. Publics and their health: 50 years of continuity and change. J Public Health (Oxf) 2022; 44:i17-i22. [PMID: 36465051 PMCID: PMC9720362 DOI: 10.1093/pubmed/fdac086] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/17/2022] [Revised: 07/26/2022] [Accepted: 08/01/2022] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND This article explores a set of changes and continuities in relation to public health and its publics in the UK since the establishment of the Faculty of Public Health in 1972. METHODS The article draws on historical research to produce a synthetic analysis of key changes and continuities in British public health since 1972. RESULTS Three key areas are identified. The first centres on the issue of who has responsibility for public health. The second examines the persistence of social and racial inequalities in population health. The third considers the 'return' of infectious disease as a threat to public health. CONCLUSIONS Despite the trend to place more responsibility for individual and collective health on the public itself, there was a proliferation in the actors and authorities involved in securing and protecting the health of the public. The strong linkages between health and structural inequality, and the challenges of addressing these, demonstrate that public health never was (and never can be) solely an individual matter. The appearance of new diseases, such as HIV/AIDS and the return of ones thought to have been conquered, like tuberculosis, raised profound questions for public health authorities and the people they cared for.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Alex Mold
- London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Centre for History in Public Health, Keppel Street, London, WC1E 7HT, UK
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Boucher BJ. Discrepancies between current guidance from NICE on the treatment of vitamin D deficiency and the recommended daily amounts [RDAs] for its prevention in the UK. Expert Rev Endocrinol Metab 2022; 17:201-203. [PMID: 35450494 DOI: 10.1080/17446651.2022.2067143] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/28/2021] [Accepted: 04/13/2022] [Indexed: 10/18/2022]
|
4
|
Vitamin D status of children with Paediatric Inflammatory Multisystem Syndrome Temporally associated with Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (PIMS-TS). Br J Nutr 2021; 127:896-903. [PMID: 33977890 PMCID: PMC8245338 DOI: 10.1017/s0007114521001562] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
Abstract
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has caused mild illness in children, until the emergence of the novel hyperinflammatory condition paediatric inflammatory multisystem syndrome temporally associated with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) (PIMS-TS). PIMS-TS is thought to be a post-SARS-CoV-2 immune dysregulation with excessive inflammatory cytokine release. We studied 25 hydroxyvitamin D (25OHD) concentrations in children with PIMS-TS, admitted to a tertiary paediatric hospital in the UK, due to its postulated role in cytokine regulation and immune response. Eighteen children (median (range) age 8·9 (0·3-14·6) years, male = 10) met the case definition. The majority were of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) origin (89 %, 16/18). Positive SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibodies were present in 94 % (17/18) and RNA by PCR in 6 % (1/18). Seventy-eight percentage of the cohort were vitamin D deficient (< 30 nmol/l). The mean 25OHD concentration was significantly lower when compared with the population mean from the 2015/16 National Diet and Nutrition Survey (children aged 4–10 years) (24 v. 54 nmol/l (95 % CI −38·6, −19·7); P < 0·001). The paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) group had lower mean 25OHD concentrations compared with the non-PICU group, but this was not statistically significant (19·5 v. 31·9 nmol/l; P = 0·11). The higher susceptibility of BAME children to PIMS-TS and also vitamin D deficiency merits contemplation. Whilst any link between vitamin D deficiency and the severity of COVID-19 and related conditions including PIMS-TS requires further evidence, public health measures to improve vitamin D status of the UK BAME population have been long overdue.
Collapse
|
5
|
Boucher BJ. Vitamin D status as a predictor of Covid-19 risk in Black, Asian and other ethnic minority groups in the UK. Diabetes Metab Res Rev 2020; 36:e3375. [PMID: 32588937 PMCID: PMC7361214 DOI: 10.1002/dmrr.3375] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/18/2020] [Accepted: 06/22/2020] [Indexed: 12/26/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Barbara J. Boucher
- The Blizard Institute, Barts & The London School of Medicine & DentistryQueen Mary University of LondonLondonUK
| |
Collapse
|
6
|
Boucher BJ. Why do so many trials of vitamin D supplementation fail? Endocr Connect 2020; 9:R195-R206. [PMID: 33052876 PMCID: PMC7487184 DOI: 10.1530/ec-20-0274] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/17/2020] [Accepted: 08/11/2020] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
Abstract
Our knowledge of vitamin D has come a long way since the 100 years it took for doctors to accept, between 1860 and 1890, that both sunlight and cod liver oil (a well-known folk remedy) cured and prevented rickets. Vitamins D2/D3 were discovered exactly a hundred years ago, and over the last 50 years vitamin D has been found to have many effects on virtually all human tissues and not just on bone health, while mechanisms affecting the actions of vitamin D at the cellular level are increasingly understood, but deficiency persists globally. Observational studies in humans have shown that better provision of vitamin D is strongly associated, dose-wise, with reductions in current and future health risks in line with the known actions of vitamin D. Randomised controlled trials, commonly accepted as providing a 'gold standard' for assessing the efficacy of new forms of treatment, have frequently failed to provide supportive evidence for the expected health benefits of supplementation. Such RCTs, however, have used designs evolved for testing drugs while vitamin D is a nutrient; the appreciation of this difference is critical to identifying health benefits from existing RCT data and for improving future RCT design. This report aims, therefore, to provide a brief overview of the evidence for a range of non-bony health benefits of vitamin D repletion; to discuss specific aspects of vitamin D biology that can confound RCT design and how to allow for them.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Barbara J Boucher
- Blizard Institute, Barts & The London school of Medicine & Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK
- Correspondence should be addressed to B J Boucher:
| |
Collapse
|
7
|
Moore MD. Historicising "containment and delay": COVID-19, the NHS and high-risk patients. Wellcome Open Res 2020; 5:130. [PMID: 32695884 PMCID: PMC7348669 DOI: 10.12688/wellcomeopenres.15962.1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 05/14/2020] [Indexed: 12/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Despite the first case of the novel coronavirus only being reported to the WHO at the end of December 2019, humanities and social science scholars have been quick to subject local, national and international responses to COVID-19 to critique. Through television and radio, blogs, social media and other outlets, historians in particular have situated the ongoing outbreak in relation to previous epidemics and historicised cultural and political responses. This paper furthers these historical considerations of the current pandemic by examining the way the National Health Service (NHS) and discourses of risk have figured in public and policy responses. It suggests that appeals to protect the NHS are based on longer-term anxieties about the service's capacity to care and endure in the face of growing demand, as well as building on the attachment that has developed as a result of this persistence in the face of existential threats. Similarly, the position of elderly, vulnerable and "at risk" patients relates to complex histories in which their place in social and medical hierarchies have been ambiguous. It thus argues that the ways in which time appears as both a threat and a possibility of management in the current crisis form part of a longer trajectory of political and cultural thinking.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Martin D. Moore
- Wellcome Centre for Cultures and Environments of Health, University of Exeter, Exeter, EX4 4QH, UK
| |
Collapse
|
8
|
Aguiar M, Andronis L, Pallan M, Högler W, Frew E. The economic case for prevention of population vitamin D deficiency: a modelling study using data from England and Wales. Eur J Clin Nutr 2019; 74:825-833. [PMID: 31427760 DOI: 10.1038/s41430-019-0486-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/08/2019] [Revised: 07/01/2019] [Accepted: 07/15/2019] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Vitamin D deficiency (VDD) affects the health and wellbeing of millions worldwide. In high latitude countries such as the United Kingdom (UK), severe complications disproportionally affect ethnic minority groups. OBJECTIVE To develop a decision-analytic model to estimate the cost effectiveness of population strategies to prevent VDD. METHODS An individual-level simulation model was used to compare: (I) wheat flour fortification; (II) supplementation of at-risk groups; and (III) combined flour fortification and supplementation; with (IV) a 'no additional intervention' scenario, reflecting the current Vitamin D policy in the UK. We simulated the whole population over 90 years. Data from national nutrition surveys were used to estimate the risk of deficiency under the alternative scenarios. Costs incurred by the health care sector, the government, local authorities, and the general public were considered. Results were expressed as total cost and effect of each strategy, and as the cost per 'prevented case of VDD' and the 'cost per Quality Adjusted Life Year (QALY)'. RESULTS Wheat flour fortification was cost saving as its costs were more than offset by the cost savings from preventing VDD. The combination of supplementation and fortification was cost effective (£9.5 per QALY gained). The model estimated that wheat flour fortification alone would result in 25% fewer cases of VDD, while the combined strategy would reduce the number of cases by a further 8%. CONCLUSION There is a strong economic case for fortifying wheat flour with Vitamin D, alone or in combination with targeted vitamin D3 supplementation.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- M Aguiar
- Institute of Applied Health Research, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK.,Collaboration for Outcomes Research and Evaluation, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z3, Canada
| | - L Andronis
- Institute of Applied Health Research, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK.,Population, Evidence and Technologies, Division of Health Sciences, University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL, UK
| | - M Pallan
- Institute of Applied Health Research, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK
| | - W Högler
- Department of Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Johannes Kepler University, Linz, A-4040, Austria.,Institute of Metabolism and Systems Research, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK
| | - E Frew
- Institute of Applied Health Research, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK.
| |
Collapse
|
9
|
Zhang M, Shen F, Petryk A, Tang J, Chen X, Sergi C. "English Disease": Historical Notes on Rickets, the Bone-Lung Link and Child Neglect Issues. Nutrients 2016; 8:E722. [PMID: 27854286 PMCID: PMC5133108 DOI: 10.3390/nu8110722] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/19/2016] [Revised: 11/04/2016] [Accepted: 11/10/2016] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Nutritional or classical rickets (here labeled as "rickets") is a worldwide disease involving mostly infants and young children having inadequate sunlight exposure, often associated with a low dietary intake of Vitamin D. Rickets targets all layers of society independently of economic status with historical information spanning more than two millennia. Vitamin D is critical for the absorption of calcium and prevention of rickets in children as well as osteomalacia in adults. The initial and misleading paradigm of the 19th and 20th centuries that rickets may have been the consequence of infection has been, indeed, reversed following the identification of the Vitamin D molecule's important role in the function of the immune system. Although traditionally considered limited to osteopathology, Vitamin D deficiency is now known to be linked to infection, inflammation, and carcinogenesis. In this review, we consider the key historical (Whistler, pre-Whistler and post-Whistler descriptors) and social facts around rickets; highlight the osteo-pathological features of rickets and the pathology of the upper and lower respiratory tract, stressing the fact that lungs remain the main secondary organ affected by Vitamin D deficiency; and emphasize the public health role in identifying the cases of child neglect or abuse based on the evaluation of the costochondral region.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Mingyong Zhang
- Department of Orthopedics, Tianyou Hospital, Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430064, China.
| | - Fan Shen
- Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 2B7, Canada.
| | - Anna Petryk
- Comprehensive Pediatric Bone Health Program, Div. Pediatric Endocrinology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA.
| | - Jingfeng Tang
- Membrane Protein Disease and Cancer Research Centre, Provincial Innovation Center, Hubei University of Technology, Wuhan 430068, China.
| | - Xingzhen Chen
- Membrane Protein Disease and Cancer Research Centre, Provincial Innovation Center, Hubei University of Technology, Wuhan 430068, China.
- Department of Physiology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 2R3, Canada.
| | - Consolato Sergi
- Department of Orthopedics, Tianyou Hospital, Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430064, China.
- Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 2B7, Canada.
- Stollery Children's Hospital, University of Alberta Hospital, Edmonton, AB T6G 2B7, Canada.
| |
Collapse
|
10
|
Gupta N, Nigam V. Tendoachillis avulsion in osteomalacia. CLINICAL CASES IN MINERAL AND BONE METABOLISM : THE OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF THE ITALIAN SOCIETY OF OSTEOPOROSIS, MINERAL METABOLISM, AND SKELETAL DISEASES 2015; 12:60-61. [PMID: 26136799 PMCID: PMC4469230 DOI: 10.11138/ccmbm/2015.12.1.060] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/04/2023]
Abstract
Sixteen-year-old girl presented with generalized body pain with avulsion of tendoachillis on minimal trauma. Surgical repair led to complete recovery. Investigations revealed severe osteomalacia, which improved on supplementation. Surgical difficulty encountered was soft nature of bone, difficult attachment of tendon and delayed rehabilitation. Vitamin D evaluation is essential in young females presenting with generalized body pain and pain at attachments of strong muscles with bones.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Neha Gupta
- SMS&R and Sharda Hospital, Greater NOIDA, India
| | | |
Collapse
|
11
|
Bivins R. Ideology and disease identity: the politics of rickets, 1929-1982. MEDICAL HUMANITIES 2014; 40:3-10. [PMID: 23918817 PMCID: PMC4033029 DOI: 10.1136/medhum-2013-010400] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/16/2013] [Accepted: 06/26/2013] [Indexed: 06/02/2023]
Abstract
How can we assess the reciprocal impacts of politics and medicine in the contemporary period? Using the example of rickets in twentieth century Britain, I will explore the ways in which a preventable, curable non-infectious disease came to have enormous political significance, first as a symbol of socioeconomic inequality, then as evidence of racial and ethnic health disparities. Between the 1920s and 1980s, clinicians, researchers, health workers, members of Parliament and later Britain's growing South Asian ethnic communities repeatedly confronted the British state with evidence of persistent nutritional deficiency among the British poor and British Asians. Drawing on bitter memories of the 'Hungry Thirties', postwar rickets-so often described as a 'Victorian' disease-became a high-profile sign of what was variously constructed as a failure of the Welfare State; or of the political parties charged with its protection; or of ethnically Asian migrants and their descendants to adapt to British life and norms. Here I will argue that rickets prompted such consternation not because of its severity, the cost of its treatment, or even its prevalence; but because of the ease with which it was politicised. I will explore the ways in which this condition was envisioned, defined and addressed as Britain moved from the postwar consensus to Thatcherism, and as Britain's diverse South Asian communities developed from migrant enclaves to settled multigenerational ethnic communities.
Collapse
|
12
|
Vitamin D deficiency amongst minority ethnic groups in the UK: a cross sectional study. Int J Cardiol 2012; 167:2172-6. [PMID: 23140614 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijcard.2012.05.081] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/02/2012] [Accepted: 05/27/2012] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Vitamin D deficiency is common amongst minority groups in Britain but its magnitude amongst South Asian (SA) and Black African-Caribbean (AC) groups is not well defined. The steroidal, endocrine nature of vitamin D provides it with a putative link with cardiovascular disease (CVD), and we hypothesised that aberrant levels of this hormone would reflect a heightened risk of CVD in these ethnic groups. METHODS SA (n=1105, 57% male) and AC (n=748, 51% male) were recruited as part of a community heart failure study from 20 primary care practices, Birmingham, UK. Vitamin D2/D3 levels were measured to determine rates of total vitamin D status, which were age/sex adjusted. RESULTS The majority of SAs had severe vitamin D deficiency (42.2%, 95% CI: 39.2-45.1), which was more frequent than in AC (12.5%, 10.2-14.9, p<0.001. Vitamin status in SA and AC was unrelated to the presence of osteoporosis, and on multivariate analysis of SA, vitamin D levels were independently associated with age (β=0.18, p<0.001), haemoglobin (β=0.12, p=0.002), and negatively with alkaline phosphatase (a marker of bone mineralisation, β=-0.11, p=0.022). Amongst AC, vitamin D was independently associated with having ever smoked (β=-0.13, p=0.006) and systolic blood pressure (β=0.10, p=0.038). CONCLUSIONS Vitamin D deficiency is a frequent biochemical observation amongst minority groups in Britain but the clinical significance is unclear, and ethnically specific. A proportionate susceptibility to bone disease is not apparent in either minority group.
Collapse
|
13
|
The ambiguity of ethnicity as risk factor of vitamin D deficiency – A case study of Danish vitamin D policy documents. Health Policy 2011; 102:56-63. [DOI: 10.1016/j.healthpol.2011.05.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/27/2010] [Revised: 05/17/2011] [Accepted: 05/24/2011] [Indexed: 01/08/2023]
|
14
|
Hyppönen E. Preventing Vitamin D Deficiency in Pregnancy – Importance for the Mother and Child. ANNALS OF NUTRITION AND METABOLISM 2011; 59:28-31. [DOI: 10.1159/000332072] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
|
15
|
Abstract
There has been an important shift in the views about the actions of vitamin D during the past decade. In addition to its well-established role in the regulation of calcium metabolism, vitamin D deficiency has been associated with the risk of several extra-skeletal diseases, including type 1 diabetes among other chronic conditions. It is notable that 1,25(OH)(2)D is known to regulate the expression of over 200 different genes, including the ones related to apoptosis and immune modulation. Increased vitamin D intake is currently considered as one of the most promising candidates for the prevention of type 1 diabetes, and it has been suggested that changes in vitamin D intake during the past decades have contributed to the recent trends in the incidence of the disease. This study reviews the evidence for the role of vitamin D in type 1 diabetes development, demonstrating that support has been obtained from various lines of investigation and that the possible biological mechanisms are plausible. However, much of the evidence has been obtained from animal experiments or observational studies in humans and there is an urgent need for well-designed, randomized, controlled trials to show whether the observed associations are indeed causal.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- E Hyppönen
- MRC Centre of Epidemiology for Child Health, UCL Institute of Child Health, London, UK.
| |
Collapse
|
16
|
Avoidance of vitamin D deficiency in pregnancy in the United Kingdom: the case for a unified approach in National policy. Br J Nutr 2010; 104:309-14. [PMID: 20594390 DOI: 10.1017/s0007114510002436] [Citation(s) in RCA: 44] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
Abstract
Prevalence of hypovitaminosis D in Western populations is high; pregnant women are identified as a high-risk group, especially if dark skinned. Consequences of severe clinical vitamin D deficiency in pregnancy can be life threatening to the newborn, while lesser degrees of hypovitaminosis D may have important long-term implications for offspring health. Past experiences with routine provision of 10 microg/d (400 IU/d) to all pregnant mothers suggest that this dose is sufficient to prevent overt neonatal complications of vitamin D deficiency. Recent data suggest that supplementation with dosages above 10 microg/d may be required for optimal health in the mother and child; however, further research is required for the assessment of the benefits and safety of supplementation with higher dosages. Lack of unified advice on vitamin D supplementation of pregnant mothers in the UK hinders the implementation of primary prevention strategies and is likely to leave some deficient mothers without supplementation.
Collapse
|