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Giving vitamin D to ALL children reduced (rickets) symptoms by 60 percent – Aug 2012

Successful public health action to reduce the incidence of symptomatic vitamin D deficiency

Arch Dis Child doi:10.1136/archdischild-2012-302287
Robert John Moy 1, Eleanor McGee 2, Geoff D Debelle 3, Ian Mather 4, Nicholas J Shaw 1,5
1 School of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, College of Medical and Dental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK
2 Nutrition and Dietetic Department, Birmingham Children's Hospital Foundation NHS Trust, Birmingham, UK
3 Department of General Paediatrics, Birmingham Children's Hospital Foundation NHS Trust, Birmingham, UK
4 Public Health Department, Solihull Primary Care Trust, Solihull, UK
5 Department of Endocrinology, Birmingham Children's Hospital Foundation NHS Trust, Birmingham, UK
Correspondence to
Dr Nicholas J Shaw, Department of Endocrinology, Birmingham Children's Hospital Foundation NHS Trust, Steelhouse Lane, Birmingham B4 6NH, UK; nick.shaw at bch.nhs.uk
Received 1 May 2012, Accepted 1 August 2012, Published Online First 21 August 2012

Background In response to a resurgence of symptomatic cases of vitamin D deficiency in a high-risk predominantly ethnic minority population, a programme of universal rather than targeted vitamin D supplementation was begun with a public awareness campaign about the importance of vitamin D.

Objective To evaluate the effectiveness of this programme in reducing case numbers.

Methods Cases of symptomatic vitamin D deficiency in children under 5?years resident in a primary care trust catchment area presenting at local hospitals were identified through laboratory records of low vitamin D levels which were cross-checked against medical records to confirm the diagnosis. Comparisons were made of the case incidence rate, level of public knowledge and vitamin supplement uptake rate at the onset of the programme in 2005 and 4?years later.

Results The number of cases of symptomatic vitamin D deficiency in those under 5?years fell by 59% (case incidence rate falling from 120/100?000 to 49/100?000) despite the supplement uptake rate rising only to 17%.

Public awareness of vitamin D deficiency rose to near universal levels.

Conclusions A programme of universal rather than targeted Healthy Start vitamin D supplementation for pregnant and lactating women and young children has led to a substantial decrease in cases of symptomatic vitamin D deficiency in a high-risk population.

Supplementation was also started at a younger age than in the national programme.

This approach has implications for the delivery of vitamin D supplementation programmes in similar populations.

PDF is attached at the bottom of this page
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2011 Presentations by one of McGee (one of the authors) indicates vitamin D levels

Women 400 IU daily, Children 300 IU, infants double that: 600 IU daily

This appears to be about 10X too little for the women.

Their goal of preventing rickets in infants and children should be met by the amount given

Note: Amount of vitamin D to infants drops drastically after weaning.

See also VitaminDWiki

Attached files

ID Name Comment Uploaded Size Downloads
1596 Public Health Action.pdf admin 15 Sep, 2012 88.31 Kb 1154