High prevalence of vitamin D insufficiency/deficiency in Dutch multi-ethnic obese children

Vitamin D insufficiency/deficiency is common among non-white children; however, little is known about the prevalence of vitamin D insufficiency/deficiency in non-white obese children living in the Netherlands. Therefore, a retrospective analysis was performed on data from multi-ethnic Dutch children and adolescents 6-18 years who visited the obesity outpatient clinic in 2012-2013. We performed anthropometric measurements, oral glucose tolerance test, and measured 25(OH)D and lipid levels. Vitamin D insufficiency was defined as 25(OH)D levels 37.5- < 50 nmol/L and vitamin D deficiency as 25(OH)D < 37.5 nmol/L. In total, data from 387 children were obtained (mean age 11.6 years, 41.1 % boys, 10.3 % Dutch native, 25.6 % Turkish, 24.5 % Moroccan, 7.5 % African Surinamese, and 7.0 % West African). The median 25(OH)D level was 34 (range 12-105) nmol/L. In total, 17.8 % were vitamin D sufficient, 24.5 % with vitamin D insufficiency, and 57.6 % with vitamin D deficiency. Obese ethnic children showed the highest (87.5 %) and normal weight white children showed the lowest (20.0 %) prevalence of vitamin D insufficiency/deficiency . Conclusion: Vitamin D insufficiency and deficiency is extremely prevalent in treatment-seeking obese ethnic children. However, there was no evidence of an effect of vitamin D status on various components of the metabolic syndrome in our cohort.