Modifiable and non-modifiable risk factors for vitamin d deficiency in infants and young children

Cover Page

Cite item

Full Text

Open Access Open Access
Restricted Access Access granted
Restricted Access Subscription or Fee Access

Abstract

Background: The high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in children necessitates finding optimal approaches to prevention, which in turn is impossible without identifying risk factors, including in different age groups.

Objective: Determination of the contribution of modifiable risk factors and the role of genotypes of polymorphic markers Fok I and Taq I of the VDR gene in the development of vitamin D deficiency in infants and young children.

Materials and methods: 94 children aged 4.5 to 18 months were examined. The study included determination of blood vitamin D levels (25-hydroxyergocalciferol + 25-hydroxycholecalciferol), determination of Fok I and Taq I polymorphisms of the VDR gene. The following anamnestic data were analyzed: maternal intake of vitamin D during pregnancy, type of feeding, consistency of drug prophylaxis of vitamin D deficiency in children. For each of the listed factors, the risk levels (and their statistical significance) for the development of vitamin D deficiency were determined.

Results: With seasonal intake of vitamin D, the risk of a decrease in plasma 25-OH-D to a level of less than 30 ng/ml increased by 10.36 times (p=0.0001) compared with year-round prophylaxis; refusal of maternal vitamin D intake during pregnancy resulted in a 2.95-fold (p=0.006) increase in the risk of vitamin D deficiency compared to children whose mothers took vitamin D during pregnancy. Breastfeeding did not statistically significantly increase the risk of vitamin D deficiency in children. It was found that homozygous carriers of minor alleles of Fok I (TT) had a 2.67-fold increase in the risk of developing this condition (p=0.015).

Conclusion: Modifiable risk factors are of the greatest importance. Irregularity of drug prophylaxis of vitamin D deficiency (seasonal intake) and refusal to take vitamin D during pregnancy increase the risk of vitamin D deficiency in infants and young children. Homozygous carriage of minor alleles of the Fok I gene does not correlate with the blood vitamin D level in the of children, but increases the risk of developing vitamin D deficiency.

Full Text

Restricted Access

About the authors

Olga A. Vorobeva

I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University (Sechenov University)

Author for correspondence.
Email: vorobeva_o_a@staff.sechenov.ru
ORCID iD: 0000-0001-9292-4769

Teaching Assistant of the Department of Clinical Pharmacology and Propaedeutics of Internal Diseases, N.V. Sklifosovsky Institute of Clinical Medicine

Russian Federation, Moscow

Vladimir N. Drozdov

I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University (Sechenov University)

Email: vorobeva_o_a@staff.sechenov.ru
ORCID iD: 0000-0002-0535-2916

Dr. Sci. (Med.), Professor, Department of Clinical Pharmacology and Propaedeutics of Internal Diseases, N.V. Sklifosovsky Institute of Clinical Medicine

Russian Federation, Moscow

Ruslan E. Kazakov

Scientific Center for Expertise of Medical Products

Email: vorobeva_o_a@staff.sechenov.ru
ORCID iD: 0000-0003-0802-4229

Cand. Sci. (Biol.), Head of the Department of Personalized Medicine and Clinical Pharmacogenetics

Russian Federation, Moscow

Tatiana A. Fedorova

I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University (Sechenov University)

Email: vorobeva_o_a@staff.sechenov.ru
ORCID iD: 0000-0003-1762-6934

Department of Clinical Pharmacology and Propaedeutics of Internal Medicine, N.V. Sklifosovsky Institute of Clinical Medicine

Russian Federation, Moscow

Evgenia V. Shikh

I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University (Sechenov University)

Email: vorobeva_o_a@staff.sechenov.ru
ORCID iD: 0000-0001-6589-7654

Dr. Sci. (Med.), Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Head of the Department of Clinical Pharmacology and Propaedeutics of Internal Medicine, N.V. Sklifosovsky Institute of Clinical Medicine

Russian Federation, Moscow

References

  1. Fischer P.R., Johnson C.R., Leopold K.N., Thacher T.D. Treatment of vitamin D deficiency in children. Expert Rev Endocrinol Metab. 2023;18(6):489–502. https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17446651.2023.2270053
  2. Lips P., Cashman K.D., Lamberg-Allardt C., et al. Current vitamin D status in European and Middle East countries and strategies to prevent vitamin D deficiency: a position statement of the European Calcified Tissue Society. Eur J Endocrinol. 2019;180:P23–P54. https://dx.doi.org/10.1530/EJE-18-0736
  3. Bouillon R., Marcocci C., Carmeliet G., et al. Skeletal and extraskeletal actions of vitamin D: current evidence and outstanding questions. Endocr Rev. 2019;40:1109–1151. https://dx.doi.org/10.1210/er.2018-00126
  4. Wagner C.L., Hollis B.W. The extraordinary metabolism of vitamin D. Elife. 2022;11:e77539. https://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.77539
  5. Sotunde O.F., Laliberte A., Weiler H.A. Maternal risk factors and newborn infant vitamin D status: a scoping literature review. Nutr Res. 2019;63:1–20. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nutres.2018.11.011
  6. Saraf R., Morton S.M., Camargo C.A. Jr, Grant C.C. Global summary of maternal and newborn vitamin D status – a systematic review. Matern Child Nutr. 2016;12(4):647–668. https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/mcn.12210
  7. van der Pligt P., Willcox J., Szymlek-Gay E.A., et al. Associations of Maternal Vitamin D Deficiency with Pregnancy and Neonatal Complications in Developing Countries: A Systematic Review. Nutrients. 2018;10(5):640. https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nu10050640
  8. Song S.J., Si S., Liu J., et al. Vitamin D status in Chinese pregnant women and their newborns in Beijing and their relationships to birth size. Public Health Nutr. 2013;16(4):687–692. https://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S1368980012003084
  9. Tan M.L., Abrams S.A., Osborn D.A. Vitamin D supplementation for term breastfed infants to prevent vitamin D deficiency and improve bone health. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2020;12(12):CD013046. https://dx.doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD013046.pub2
  10. Tayel S.I., Soliman S.E., Elsayed H.M. Vitamin D deficiency and vitamin D receptor variants in mothers and their neonates are risk factors for neonatal sepsis. Steroids. 2018;134:37–42. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.steroids.2018.03
  11. Coşkun S., Şimşek Ş., Camkurt M.A., Çim A., Çelik S.B. Association of polymorphisms in the vitamin D receptor gene and serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels in children with autism spectrum disorder. Gene. 2016;588(2):109–114. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.gene.2016.05.004

Supplementary files

Supplementary Files
Action
1. JATS XML
Download
2. Figure. Frequency of occurrence of a decrease in the level of vitamin D below adequate in patients with various polymorphisms of the Taq I (rs731236) and Fok I (rs2228570) genes

Download (59KB)
Indexing metadata

Copyright (c) 2025 Bionika Media