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Obesity is associated with vitamin D deficiency in Danish children and adolescents

  • Johanne Lind Plesner , Maria Dahl , Cilius Esmann Fonvig , Tenna Ruest Haarmark Nielsen , Julie Tonsgaard Kloppenborg , Oluf Pedersen , Torben Hansen and Jens-Christian Holm EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: December 4, 2017
Journal of Pediatric Endocrinology and Metabolism
From the journal Journal of Pediatric Endocrinology and Metabolism Volume 31 Issue 1

Abstract

Background:

Sufficient serum concentrations of vitamin D are required to maintain bone health during growth. The aims of this study were to determine whether vitamin D deficiency is more prevalent among children and adolescents with obesity compared to their normal weight peers and to identify clinical and biochemical variables associated with vitamin D deficiency.

Methods:

One thousand four hundred and eighty-four children and adolescents with overweight/obesity and 2143 population-based controls were recruited from the Danish Childhood Obesity Biobank. Anthropometric variables and fasting concentrations of serum 25-hydroxy vitamin D (25-OH-D), plasma parathyroid hormone (PTH), calcium and phosphate were assessed at baseline. Vitamin D deficiency was defined as serum 25-OH-D concentrations <30 nmol/L. Linear and logistic regressions were used to identify variables associated with vitamin D deficiency.

Results:

A total of 16.5% of the children and adolescents with obesity (body mass index [BMI] standard deviation score [SDS]>2.33) exhibited vitamin D deficiency, with an odds ratio (OR) 3.41 (confidence interval [CI]: 2.27–5.71; p<0.0001) for being vitamin D deficient compared to their normal weight peers. BMI-SDS was independently and inversely associated with serum 25-OH-D concentrations. Other independent risk factors for vitamin D deficiency were being older than 14 years (OR: 2.39; CI: 1.28–4.48; p=0.006), more than 4 daily hours of screen time (OR: 4.56; CI: 2.59–8.05; p<0.0001) and blood sample assessment during winter-spring (OR: 6.44; CI: 4.47–9.26; p<0.0001).

Conclusions:

Vitamin D deficiency was common among Danish children and adolescents with obesity. The degree of obesity was independently associated with lower serum 25-OH-D concentrations.

Keywords: body mass index; calcium; childhood obesity; parathyroid hormone; vitamin D deficiency
Corresponding author: Jens-Christian Holm, MD, PhD, The Children’s Obesity Clinic, Department of Pediatrics, Copenhagen University Hospital, Holbæk, Smedelundsgade 60, 4300 Holbæk, Denmark, Phone: +45 59484200

Acknowledgments

This study was part of the research activities of the Danish Childhood Obesity Biobank and of the consortia studies TARGET (The Impact of our Genomes on Individual Treatment Response in Obese Children) and BIOCHILD (Genetics and Systems Biology of Childhood Obesity in India and Denmark, www.biochild.ku.dk).

  1. Author contributions: All the authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this submitted manuscript and approved submission.

  2. Research funding: The study was funded by the Innovation Fund Denmark (grants 0603-00484B and 0603-00457B), the Region Zealand Health and Medical Research Foundation. The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research (www.metabol.ku.dk) is an independent research center at the University of Copenhagen partially funded by the Novo Nordisk Foundation.

  3. Employment or leadership: None declared.

  4. Honorarium: None declared.

  5. Competing interests: The funding organizations played no role in the study design; in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; or in the decision to submit the report for publication.

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Received: 2017-6-24
Accepted: 2017-10-31
Published Online: 2017-12-4
Published in Print: 2018-1-26

©2018 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Editorial
  3. Growth and growth hormone: recent papers on efficacy and adverse effects of growth hormone and World Health Organisation growth standards
  4. Review
  5. Allergic and non-allergic skin reactions associated with growth hormone therapy: elucidation of causative agents
  6. Original Articles
  7. Adherence to growth hormone therapy in children and its potential barriers
  8. Short-term adverse effects of testosterone used for priming in prepubertal boys before growth hormone stimulation test
  9. Growth response to growth hormone treatment in patients with SHOX deficiency can be predicted by the Cologne prediction model
  10. WHO 2006 Child Growth Standards overestimate short stature and underestimate overweight in Japanese children
  11. Identifying depressive symptoms among diabetes type and the impact on hemoglobin A1c
  12. Insulin resistance and lung function in obese asthmatic pre-pubertal children
  13. Obesity is associated with vitamin D deficiency in Danish children and adolescents
  14. Daily sitting time associated with the risk of metabolic syndrome in Korean adolescents
  15. Molecular basis and clinical presentation of classic galactosemia in a Croatian population
  16. Clinical outcome in a series of pediatric patients with congenital generalized lipodystrophies treated with dietary therapy
  17. Letter to the Editor
  18. Spondyloepiphyseal or spondylometaphyseal dysplasia in ancient Greek art
  19. Case Reports
  20. Sirolimus therapy for congenital hyperinsulinism in an infant with a novel homozygous KCNJ11 mutation
  21. Veganism as a cause of iodine deficient hypothyroidism
  22. A case of Riley Ruvalcaba syndrome with a novel PTEN mutation accompanied by diffuse testicular microlithiasis and precocious puberty
  23. Addison’s disease presenting with perimyocarditis
https://doi.org/10.1515/jpem-2017-0246
Keywords for this article
body mass index; calcium; childhood obesity; parathyroid hormone; vitamin D deficiency

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Editorial
  3. Growth and growth hormone: recent papers on efficacy and adverse effects of growth hormone and World Health Organisation growth standards
  4. Review
  5. Allergic and non-allergic skin reactions associated with growth hormone therapy: elucidation of causative agents
  6. Original Articles
  7. Adherence to growth hormone therapy in children and its potential barriers
  8. Short-term adverse effects of testosterone used for priming in prepubertal boys before growth hormone stimulation test
  9. Growth response to growth hormone treatment in patients with SHOX deficiency can be predicted by the Cologne prediction model
  10. WHO 2006 Child Growth Standards overestimate short stature and underestimate overweight in Japanese children
  11. Identifying depressive symptoms among diabetes type and the impact on hemoglobin A1c
  12. Insulin resistance and lung function in obese asthmatic pre-pubertal children
  13. Obesity is associated with vitamin D deficiency in Danish children and adolescents
  14. Daily sitting time associated with the risk of metabolic syndrome in Korean adolescents
  15. Molecular basis and clinical presentation of classic galactosemia in a Croatian population
  16. Clinical outcome in a series of pediatric patients with congenital generalized lipodystrophies treated with dietary therapy
  17. Letter to the Editor
  18. Spondyloepiphyseal or spondylometaphyseal dysplasia in ancient Greek art
  19. Case Reports
  20. Sirolimus therapy for congenital hyperinsulinism in an infant with a novel homozygous KCNJ11 mutation
  21. Veganism as a cause of iodine deficient hypothyroidism
  22. A case of Riley Ruvalcaba syndrome with a novel PTEN mutation accompanied by diffuse testicular microlithiasis and precocious puberty
  23. Addison’s disease presenting with perimyocarditis
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