Vitamin D Deficiency Common in Obese Kids

Overweight or obese children are at a higher risk of vitamin D deficiency, a new study says.

The findings published online in Pediatrics, raise concerns as vitamin D is essential for bone growth in children and a deficiency can lead to rickets, a bone -softening disease among young ones. Previous studies have shown that maintaining a sufficient level of vitamin D protects children against various diseases, including respiratory infections in winter and tooth decay.

For the current study, researchers included more than 12,000 children and teens aged between six and 18 years. All the children were part of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey conducted between 2003 and 2006.

Body weight and height of the participants were measured and recorded. According to the body mass index, children and teens were divided into different groups like healthy weight, overweight, obese and severely obese. Vitamin D levels of the participants were measured and noted down. Researchers found severity of vitamin D deficiency going up with an increase in obesity.

Vitamin D deficiency was also found varying between different races like white (27 percent), Latino (52 percent) and black (87 percent) in obese children.

"Vitamin D deficiency is highly prevalent in overweight and obese children. The particularly high prevalence in severely obese and minority children suggests that targeted screening and treatment guidance is needed," the authors wrote, while concluding their study.

The findings come at a time when childhood obesity has more than tripled in the United States over the past 30 years.  A  Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report shows a shocking increase in the number of obese children aged six to 11, from 7 percent in 1980 to 20 percent in 2008. 

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), children should be given food rich in vitamin D like milk, cereal, orange juice, yogurt and margarine and it is essential for children to take a supplement of vitamin D daily as it is difficult to maintain the adequate levels only through diet. Finding the life-long health benefits of vitamin D, the AAP revised its vitamin D supplementation from 200 IU to 400 IU per day. 

Some of the natural sources of vitamin D, apart from sunshine, include shiitake and button mushrooms, oily fish (tuna, mackerel, trout, herring, sardines, kipper, carp, anchovies and orange roughy), beef liver, cheese, and egg yolks.