Vitamin D, an essential nutrient, is produced naturally through exposure to the sun and certain foods. However, excessive sunburn prevention measures are causing a serious vitamin D deficiency problem, especially among young women in Japan.
Since vitamin D deficiency is also linked to pregnancy-induced hypertension and low birth weight in children, it is important to quickly identify those at high risk and provide appropriate health guidance. However, the currently established method for measuring serum vitamin D levels is expensive and invasive; Therefore, it is necessary to develop simpler risk assessment tools.
Thus, a research group led by Professor Akiko Kuwabara of the Graduate School of Human Life and Ecology at Osaka Metropolitan University conducted a cross-sectional survey of 583 Japanese women between the ages of 18 and 40 who were affiliated with a university. specialized in nutrition. Survey items were age, residential area, time of blood draw, current medical history, medication status, smoking status, alcohol consumption status, exercise frequency, sun exposure habits and conditions, frequency of fish consumption and use of vitamin D supplements.
The dietary survey was conducted using the self-administered Dietary History Questionnaire (DHQ), and the average and cumulative dose of UV irradiation during the 30 days prior to blood collection was calculated in each region. As a result, the team was able to develop a low-cost, non-invasive tool to assess the risk of vitamin D deficiency in young women called ViDDPreS (Vitamin D Deficiency Prediction Score).
“The ViDDPreS developed in this study can identify populations in need of low-cost intervention and estimate vitamin D deficiency factors,” said Professor Kuwabara. “In addition, the use of vitamin D supplements is likely to have a beneficial effect in people deficient in this essential nutrient, so the use of ViDDPreS is expected to lead to appropriate use of the supplements.”
The findings were published in Public health nutrition.