Vitamin D status in children aged 0 to 3 years living in Moscow. Treatment and prevention of vitamin D deficiency

Abstract

The aim of this paper was to assess vitamin D status in infants and young children in Moscow. 211 children aged 0 to 3 years were examined, of which 103 (48.8%) were under the age of 12 months, 64 (30.3%) children were 2 years old, 44 (20.9%) were 3 years old. The number of boys and girls was almost equal (52.6 and 47.4%). In the examined group of children, only 38.4% had the serum calcidiol level within the normal range (> 30 ng/ml). In other cases (61.6%), the children were diagnosed with one or another degree of vitamin D deficiency: severe deficiency in 2.4%; deficiency in 27.5%; insufficiency in 31.8% of patients. The frequency of registration of vitamin D insufficiency or deficiency increases significantly with the increase of years (R = -0.22, p = 0.0018). When comparing the obtained data with the results of study RODNICHOK, it was found that the vitamin D deficiency value in Moscow children was significantly lower than that in the regions located to the south (Kazan 65.0%; p <0.01; Stavropol 45 , 8%; p <0.05), and the Far East (Blagoveshchensk 42.6%; p <0.05; Khabarovsk 42.9%; p <0.05; Vladivostok 72.7%; p < 0.01). The absolute majority of the examined children (84.8%) received a prophylactic dose of vitamin D of 500 to 1500 IU/day. The 500 IU/day dose is insufficient, because 71.2% of patients in this subgroup had a low vitamin D status. A similar effect was obtained in patients taking vitamin D at a dose of 1000 and 1500 IU/day: the absolute values of cholecalciferol reliably increased by 1.8 and 1.9 times, the number of patients with normal vitamin values increased by 2.7 and 2.2 times as compared with intake of vitamin D at a dose of 500 IU; the deficiency level reduced by more than 8 times as compared to the control group and more than 2 times as compared to the patients receiving 500 IU. The seasonal factor does not have a significant effect on the serum calcidiol level (r = 0.06 at p = 0.3), which may be due to the peculiarities of the specific prevention of hypovitaminosis: a bit more than a third of children take vitamin D in summer (39.2%), whereas absolute majority (83.3%) take it in winter.