Prevalencia de hipovitaminosis D y factores asociados en la edad infantojuvenil

OBJECTIVE: To analyse the prevalence of hypovitaminosis D and associated factors in school children and adolescents living in a region of northern Spain. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study (convenience sampling). SETTING: Primary Health Care. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 602 Caucasian individuals (aged 3.1 to 15.4 years) were included in the study. MAIN MEASUREMENTS: Prevalence of hypovitaminosis D were calculated (dependent variable). Hypovitaminosis D is defined according to the US Endocrine Society criteria: deficiency (calcidiol < 20 ng/mL), insufficiency (calcidiol: 20-29 ng/mL), and sufficiency (calcidiol ≥ 30 ng/mL). Gender, age, body mass index, residence, and season of the year were recorded (independent variables), and their association with hypovitaminosis D was analysed by multiple regression. RESULTS: The prevalence of hypovitaminosis D was 60.4% (insufficiency: 44.6%; deficiency: 15.8%). Multivariate analysis showed that factors associated to hypovitaminosis D were being female (OR: 1.6; 95% CI: 1.1-2.3), pubertal age (OR: 1.8; 95% CI: 1.2-2.6), autumn (OR: 9.5; 95% CI: 4.8-18.7), winter (OR: 8.8; 95% CI: 4.5-17.5) and spring time (OR: 13.2; 95% CI: 6.4-27.5), living in urban areas (OR:1.6; CI 95%: 1.1-2.2), and severe obesity (OR: 4.4; 95% CI: 1.9-10.3). CONCLUSIONS: There is a high prevalence of hypovitaminosis D in juvenile populations. being female, pubertal age, autumn, winter and spring seasons, severe obesity, and living in urban areas are factors associated to hypovitaminosis D. Consideration should be given to the administration of vitamin supplements and/or the increase in the ingestion of natural vitamin D dietary sources.