Nutrition assessment of vitamin A and vitamin D in northeast Chinese population based-on SPE/UPLC/PDA

BACKGROUND: The aims of the current study were to assess the nutritional status of 25OHD3 and retinol in a northern Chinese population using our established reliable method for the simultaneous determination of serum 25OHD3 and retinol. METHOD: We established a reliable method for the simultaneous determination of 25OHD3 and retinol using SPE and UPLC/PDA; measured the serum levels of 25OHD3 and retinol in elementary school students, middle school students, and adults (n = 1181) in northern China; and assessed their nutritional status. RESULTS: Our method had good precision, detection limit, and linear quantitative range and could process 100 samples within 12 h. The average levels of 25OHD3 and retinol were 16.1 ± 6.7 ng/ml and 328.1 ± 117.1 ng/ml, respectively, in all samples. VD deficiency was common, with a prevalence > 60% in all three age groups, and the high prevalence of VA deficiency (26.1%) was observed only in the elementary school students. CONCLUSIONS: Vitamin A supplementation should be considered for elementary school students, and vitamin D supplementation is highly recommended for all age groups in Harbin. Our method could be widely adopted in population-based studies and clinical practice. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s40795-018-0219-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.