To assess how vitamin D affects bone fracture risk in children, researchers focused on the school community of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, where vitamin D deficiency and poor calcium intake are prevalent.
of studyThe study, published in Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, surveyed approximately 8,800 public school children ages 6 to 13 who were not already taking vitamin D supplements. At the start of the study, 95.5 percent were vitamin D deficient. Half of the children received a weekly vitamin D supplement of 14,000 IU, and the other half received a placebo.
When the researchers followed up three years later, they found that the children who took the supplement had higher vitamin D levels overall. However, this group still experienced fractures at the same rate as the group that did not take the supplement. In fact, 6.4 percent of children who received vitamin D experienced one or more bone fractures during the study period, compared to 6.1 percent of children who received vitamin D. Effects did not differ substantially by gender or calcium intake.
The risk of fractures in Mongolian children was “high” and nearly twice as high as in a group of about 200,000 Norwegian children in another study, but the researchers said the fracture rates in their analysis were more statistically significant in their results. He stated that he provided the rationale. Bone density tests also showed no significant differences between children who took the vitamin and those who did not.
Researchers said the supplement may have failed because it wasn't combined with bone-strengthening calcium.
“In adults, vitamin D supplementation is most effective in preventing fractures when given concurrently with calcium,” Gamma Davaasambu, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School and lead author of the study, said in the paper. news release. “Thus, the fact that we did not provide trial participants with calcium along with vitamin D may explain the null results of this study.”
The study also excluded children with rickets, a condition in which bones become soft due to vitamin deficiencies.Low-dose daily vitamin D supplementation linked to prevention of rickets, leading in 2021 study It declares that the effectiveness of vitamin D supplements is “the one condition that supersedes any other condition for which there is conclusive and very long-term evidence.”
