Vitamin D deficiency in South-East Asian children: a systematic review

Oktaria V 1 , Putri DAD 2 , Ihyauddin Z 2 , Julia M 3 , Sulistyoningrum DC 4 , Koon PB 5 Show all authors , Danchin M 6 , Murni IK 2

Affiliations 

  • 1 Department of Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Population Health, Faculty of Medicine, Public Health and Nursing, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Sleman, Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta, Indonesia vicka.oktaria@ugm.ac.id
  • 2 Center for Child Health-Pediatric Research Office, Faculty of Medicine, Public Health and Nursing, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Sleman, Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta, Indonesia
  • 3 Child Health Department, Faculty of Medicine, Public Health and Nursing, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Sleman, Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta, Indonesia
  • 4 Department of Nutrition and Health, Faculty of Medicine, Public Health and Nursing, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Sleman, Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta, Indonesia
  • 5 Centre for Community Health Studies (ReaCH), Faculty of Health Sciences, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Malaysia
  • 6 Department of Paediatrics, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Arch Dis Child, 2022 Jun 09.
PMID: 35680405 DOI: 10.1136/archdischild-2021-323765

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To describe the prevalence and determinants of vitamin D deficiency (VDD) among healthy children aged between 0 and 18 years living in South-East Asia (SEA).

DESIGN: We systematically searched Ovid MEDLINE and Ovid EMBASE for observational studies assessing VDD among healthy children in the SEA region as the primary or secondary outcome from database inception to 6 April 2021. PubMed was used for e-pubs and publications not indexed in Medline. Publications that included abstracts in English were included. We performed a systematic review to describe the prevalence of VDD in SEA children.

RESULTS: Our initial search identified 550 publications with an additional 2 publications from manual screening. Of those, 21 studies from 5 different countries (Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia and Cambodia) were summarised and included in forest plots. The prevalence of VDD (<50 nmol/L) ranged from 0.9% to 96.4%, with >50% of newborns having VDD, and severe VDD (<30 nmol/L) ranged from 0% to 55.8%. Female sex and urban living were the most common determinants of VDD.

CONCLUSIONS: VDD among healthy children living in the SEA region is common. Efforts to detect VDD and the implementation of preventive measures, including education on safe sun exposure and oral vitamin D supplementation or food fortification, should be considered for key target groups, including adolescent females and pregnant and lactating women to improve the vitamin D status of newborns.

PROTOCOL REGISTRATION NUMBER: This study is registered with PROSPERO (CRD42020181600).

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

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