Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2016 Dec 21;8(12):825.
doi: 10.3390/nu8120825.

Low Prevalence of Vitamin D Insufficiency among Nepalese Infants Despite High Prevalence of Vitamin D Insufficiency among Their Mothers

Johanne Haugen  1   2 , Manjeswori Ulak  3 , Ram K Chandyo  4 , Sigrun Henjum  5 , Andrew L Thorne-Lyman  6   7   8 , Per Magne Ueland  9   10 , Øivind Midtun  11   12 , Prakash S Shrestha  13 , Tor A Strand  14   15   16
Affiliations

Low Prevalence of Vitamin D Insufficiency among Nepalese Infants Despite High Prevalence of Vitamin D Insufficiency among Their Mothers

Johanne Haugen et al. Nutrients. .

Abstract

Background: Describing vitamin D status and its predictors in various populations is important in order to target public health measures.

Objectives: To describe the status and predictors of vitamin D status in healthy Nepalese mothers and infants.

Methods: 500 randomly selected Nepalese mother and infant pairs were included in a cross-sectional study. Plasma 25(OH)D concentrations were measured by LC-MS/MS and multiple linear regression analyses were used to identify predictors of vitamin D status.

Results: Among the infants, the prevalence of vitamin D insufficiency (25(OH)D <50 nmol/L) and deficiency (<30 nmol/L) were 3.6% and 0.6%, respectively, in contrast to 59.8% and 14.0% among their mothers. Infant 25(OH)D concentrations were negatively associated with infant age and positively associated with maternal vitamin D status and body mass index (BMI), explaining 22% of the variability in 25(OH)D concentration. Global solar radiation, maternal age and BMI predicted maternal 25(OH)D concentration, explaining 9.7% of its variability.

Conclusion: Age and maternal vitamin D status are the main predictors of vitamin D status in infants in Bhaktapur, Nepal, who have adequate vitamin D status despite poor vitamin D status in their mothers.

Keywords: 25(OH)D; Nepal; infants; lactating mothers; season; vitamin D status.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Study flow chart.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Infants and mothers 25(OH)D, and variability with month of the year (A) and global solar radiation (B). (A) 25(OH)D concentration by month 1–12 of the year (January–December) for infants (upper line) and mothers (lower line); (B) 25(OH)D concentration by global solar radiation for infants (upper line) and mothers (lower line).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Infants and mothers 25(OH)D, and variability with month of the year (A) and global solar radiation (B). (A) 25(OH)D concentration by month 1–12 of the year (January–December) for infants (upper line) and mothers (lower line); (B) 25(OH)D concentration by global solar radiation for infants (upper line) and mothers (lower line).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Agarwal N., Faridi M.M., Aggarwal A., Singh O. Vitamin D Status of term exclusively breastfed infants and their mothers from India. Acta Paediatr. 2010;99:1671–1674. doi: 10.1111/j.1651-2227.2010.01912.x. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Dawodu A., Agarwal M., Hossain M., Kochiyil J., Zayed R. Hypovitaminosis D and vitamin D deficiency in exclusively breast-feeding infants and their mothers in summer: A justification for vitamin D supplementation of breast-feeding infants. J. Pediatr. 2003;142:169–173. doi: 10.1067/mpd.2003.63. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Bhalala U., Desai M., Parekh P., Mokal R., Chheda B. Subclinical hypovitaminosis D among exclusively breastfed young infants. Indian Pediatr. 2007;44:897–901. - PubMed
    1. Sachan A., Gupta R., Das V., Agarwal A., Awasthi P.K., Bhatia V. High prevalence of vitamin D deficiency among pregnant women and their newborns in northern India. Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 2005;81:1060–1064. - PubMed
    1. Hossain N., Khanani R., Hussain-Kanani F., Shah T., Arif S., Pal L. High prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in Pakistani mothers and their newborns. Int. J. Gynaecol. Obstet. 2011;112:229–233. doi: 10.1016/j.ijgo.2010.09.017. - DOI - PubMed

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources