Only 24% of children, adolescents with type 1 diabetes had sufficient vitamin D levels

Issue: February 2009

Three-quarters of children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes had insufficient levels of vitamin D, according to results of a study conducted by researchers at the Joslin Diabetes Center. The findings suggest that children with diabetes may need vitamin D supplementation to prevent bone fragility later in life.

Researchers measured levels of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D in 128 children and adolescents with recent onset or long-established type 1 diabetes. Patients were aged 1.5 years to 17.5 years.

Twenty-four percent of children and adolescents had sufficient vitamin D levels, 61% had insufficient levels and 15% were vitamin D deficient. Generally, patients with deficient levels were older. In total, 85% of the children and adolescents had inadequate vitamin D levels.

“To our surprise, we found extremely high rates of vitamin D inadequacy. We didn’t expect to find that only 24% of the study population would have adequate levels,” researcher Lori Laffel, MD, MPH, chief of the Pediatric, Adolescent and Youth Adult Section at Joslin Diabetes Center, said in a press release.

“In addition to inadequate levels of vitamin D, adolescent patients with type 1 diabetes potentially possess multiple risk factors for increased skeletal fragility,” Laffel and her colleagues wrote in the study.

In a related editorial, Philip S. Zeitler, MD, PhD, and Georgeanna J. Klingensmith, MD, wrote, “Vitamin D insufficiency is an increasing concern to all pediatricians, with reports of vitamin D deficiency in 42% to 52% of healthy children and adolescents, with children of color more affected than white children. The therapeutic approach to bone health in children and youth with type 1 diabetes is unclear, although this is clearly another opportunity for collaboration between general and specialty care providers.”

J Pediatr. 2009;154:7-9.
J Pediatr. 2009;154:132-134.