Vitamin D Supplementation Does Not Influence Growth in Children

MONDAY, Nov. 28, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- For children with a high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency (25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] <20 ng/mL), vitamin D₃ supplementation increases 25(OH)D concentrations but does not influence growth, body composition, or pubertal development, according to a study published online Nov. 28 in JAMA Pediatrics.

Davaasambuu Ganmaa, Ph.D., from the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, and colleagues conducted a secondary analysis of a double-blind, placebo-controlled randomized clinical trial, conducted among school-aged children in Mongolia from June 2016 to June 2019. A total of 8,851 children were included in the study and were randomly assigned to receive weekly oral doses of vitamin D₃ at 14,000 IU or placebo for three years (4,418 and 4,433 children, respectively).

Of the participants, 95.5 percent were vitamin D-deficient at baseline; the mean end-of-study 25(OH)D concentrations were 31.0 and 10.7 ng/mL for those randomly assigned to vitamin D and placebo, respectively. The researchers found that vitamin D supplementation had no influence on mean height for age, body mass index for age, waist-to-height ratio, percentage body fat, fat mass, fat-free mass, or Tanner scores overall or within subgroups defined according to baseline 25(OH)D concentrations, estimated calcium intake, or sex.

"This intervention did not influence growth, body composition, or pubertal development, either in the study population as a whole or within subgroups having the lowest baseline 25(OH)D concentrations or calcium intake values," the authors write.

Several authors disclosed financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry.

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