Brief observationVitamin D insufficiency among free-living healthy young adults
Section snippets
Subjects and methods
We recruited hospital employees, attending physicians, house staff physicians, medical students, and hospital visitors during our vitamin D awareness screening program at Boston University Medical Center during March and April, 1999 (end of winter) and September and October 1999 (end of summer). Subjects were excluded if they had a history of intestinal malabsorption. Subjects were divided into four age groups: 18 to 29 years, 30 to 39 years, 40 to 49 years, and ≥50 years. Study participants
Baseline characteristics
One hundred sixty-five subjects were enrolled at the end of winter and 142 subjects were enrolled at the end of summer, of whom 61% were women (n = 186) and 60% were white (n = 185).
Dietary history
Most subjects drank milk: 64% (n = 91) in the end-of-summer group and 58% (n = 96) in the end-of-winter group. An average of 1.6 ± 1.0 glasses of milk was drunk per day. There was no statistical difference between the age groups in the percentage of subjects who drank milk. In addition, 40% (n = 123) of subjects
Discussion
The majority of elderly patients in the United States and Europe have vitamin D insufficiency 13, 14, 15. Little is known about the prevalence of vitamin D insufficiency in healthy young adults. We observed that 36% of young adults aged 18 to 29 years had vitamin D deficiency at the end of winter. They had 20% lower 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels than in the oldest group during this period and demonstrated the most seasonal variation in 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels.
Dietary intake of milk was not
Acknowledgments
We wish to thank Jeffrey Mathieu and Zhiren Lu for performing some of the 25-hydroxyvitamin D assays and John Flannagan for his help in recruiting some of the subjects.
References (19)
- et al.
Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D and colon cancereight-year prospective study
Lancet
(1989) - et al.
25-Hydroxyvitamin D-1α-hydroxylase in normal and malignant colon tissue
Lancet
(2001) - et al.
25-Hydroxyvitamin D-1α-hydroxylase and vitamin D receptor gene expression in human colonic mucosa is elevated during early cancerogenesis
Steroids
(2001) - et al.
Predictors of milk consumption in a population of 17- to 35-year-old military personnel
J Am Diet Assoc
(1999) - et al.
Summertime sun protection used by adults for their children
J Am Acad Dermatol
(2000) Sunlight dilemmarisk of skin cancer or bone disease and muscle weakness
Lancet
(2001)- et al.
Methods for the determination of the circulating concentration of 25-hydroxyvitamin D
J Nutr Biochem
(1990) - et al.
Redefining vitamin D insufficiency
Lancet
(1998) - et al.
Increased skin pigment reduces the capacity of skin to synthesise vitamin D3
Lancet
(1982)
Cited by (0)
This work was supported by NIH MO1RR00053.