BOSTON, Oct 26, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) -- Millions of U.S. children under age 11
-- particularly African-American and Hispanic children -- may get too little
vitamin D, researchers found.
Study leader Dr. Jonathan Mansbach of Children's Hospital Boston, and colleagues
of the University of Colorado Denver and Massachusetts General Hospital in
Boston, used data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey to
look at vitamin D levels in a nationally representative sample of some 5,000
children from 2001-2006.
In a study scheduled to be published in the journal Pediatrics, the researchers
said extrapolating to the entire U.S. population suggests roughly 20 percent of
all children fall below the recommended 50 nanomoles per liter. Moreover, more
than two-thirds of all children have levels below 75 nmol/L, including 80
percent of Hispanic children and 92 percent of non-Hispanic black children.
"If 75 nmol/L or higher is eventually demonstrated to be the healthy normal
level of vitamin D, then there is much more vitamin D deficiency in the U.S.
than people realize," Mansbach said in a statement.
The researchers suggested all children take vitamin D supplements because of the
generally low levels they found and the potential health benefits of boosting
vitamin D to normal levels.
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