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Neonatal vitamin D status not tied to childhood fracture
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Fracture risk in childhood does not seem to be affected by neonatal vitamin D status, according to findings published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
Mina Nicole Händel, PhD, of the department of clinical research, University of Southern Denmark, and colleagues evaluated data from the D-tect study on 1,039 children admitted to a hospital with a fracture of the forearm, wrist, scaphoid bone, clavicle or ankle at age 6 to 13 years and a subcohort of 1,600 children without fractures. Researchers sought to determine whether neonatal 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 concentrations, derived from stored neonatal dried blood spot samples, were associated with pediatric fracture risk.
Mean concentration of 25-(OH)D3 was 22.7 nmol/L in all participants. There was significant monthly variation in 25-(OH)D3 levels (P < .001) with the highest values in July and August and the lowest values in April in all participants.
Sex, gestational age, birth weight, 25-(OH)D3 quintile categories, parity and maternal education level did not significantly differ between participants with and without fractures. Participants with fractures were more likely to have mothers who smoked (24%) compared with participants without fractures (20%; P = .05).
Participants with 25-(OH)D3 levels in the middle quintile had lower odds for sustaining fracture in the crude analysis (OR = 0.76; 95% CI, 0.6-0.98) and the adjusted analysis (OR = 0.75; 95% CI, 0.58-0.96) compared with participants with levels in the first quintile.
The odds for fracture were not predicted by maternal smoking during pregnancy as exposure. The odds of fracture showed no interaction between categories of vitamin D concentrations and ethnicity, sex, smoking or season of birth.
“Neonatal vitamin D status does not seem to influence the subsequent fracture risk in childhood,” the researchers wrote. “These results are in line with results from the few previous studies that examined association between antenatal maternal vitamin D status and childhood fractures. Large, randomized controlled trials with vitamin D supplementation during pregnancy in relation to fracture outcome are needed at this point.” – by Amber Cox
Disclosure: Händel reports no relevant financial disclosures. Please see the full study for a list of all other authors’ relevant financial disclosures.
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