Prevalence of low vitamin d levels in an urban midwestern obstetric practice.
J Midwifery Womens Health. 2012 Sep;57(5):439-44. doi: 10.1111/j.1542-2011.2012.00167.x.
Collins-Fulea C, Klima K, Wegienka GR.
Introduction: This study describes the prevalence of low vitamin D levels in pregnancy in a diverse urban population.
Methods: This was a retrospective chart review of 2839 women who gave birth at a Michigan hospital between January 1, 2008 and December 31, 2009 and had at least 1 vitamin D (25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D]) measurement during their pregnancies. Race/ethnic group, wearing the hijab, and season of 25(OH)D sample collection were used in the descriptive analysis.
Results: Most women (92.5%) in this study had documented insufficient levels of 25(OH)D (defined as < 30 mL), and 71.7% of all women had deficient levels of 25(OH)D (defined as < 20 ng/mL).
Subgroups with the highest percentage of women who were vitamin D deficient were:
- Middle Eastern (91.8%),
- African American (81.6%), and
- Asian (74.3%).
Overall, women who wore the hijab were more likely to be deficient (89.5% vs 68.7; P < .0001) and insufficient (98.8% vs 91.4%; P < .0001) compared with women who did not wear the hijab.
Discussion: The data demonstrate the high rate of vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency in this white and nonwhite urban population in which samples were collected in both winter and nonwinter months. The percentage of woman who had 25(OH)D levels below 30 ng/mL was significantly higher than that reported in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey III (NHANES III) (92.5% compared to 69%), although NHANES did not sample women in northern climates in the winter months. Even using new diagnostic definitions for vitamin D deficiency from the Institute of Medicine, the proportion of women with vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency was 40% and 31.6%, respectively.
Clinicians caring for women in northern climates as well as women who are Middle Eastern, African American, and Asian need to be aware of the risk for vitamin D deficiency and the potential health effects for the mother and infant.
© 2012 by the American College of Nurse-Midwives.
PMID: 22954074
See also VitaminDWiki
The articles in Pregnancy AND Dark Skin are here:
- Hemorrhage after birth is 4X more likely if low vitamin D (dark skin, etc) – March 2022
- Dark-skinned people have low vitamin D (Obese pregnant women in UK in this case) – Sept 2024
- Preterm Birth 2.7X more likely if low vitamin D (dark skin in this case) - Nov 2023
- Low vitamin D while pregnant – a health emergency (Indonesia in this case) – meta-analysis May 2023
- US maternal death rate increasing (low D not mentioned) - March 2023
- Vitamin D Status May Help Explain Maternal Race and Ethnic Factors in Primary Cesarean Section Delivery – April 2020
- Dark-skin plus low vitamin D in first trimester made preterm birth 2.9 X more likely – Dec 2019
- Low vitamin D in pregnancy linked to potentially harmful vaginal bacteria in black women - May 2019
- Pregnant while black increases chance of death – mothers 3X, infants 2X (low Vitamin D) – Feb 2019
- Depressed black pregnant women should take vitamin D – April 2018
- Bone loss during black pregnancies – 4000 IU of vitamin D was not enough – Dec 2017
- Preterm birth more likely if dark skinned and low vitamin D (not white-skinned) – April 2017
- Dark skin pregnancies 2.6 times more likely to have low vitamin D – March 2017
- Premature birth and infant mortality worse if dark skin (low vitamin D) - 2015
- Autism with intellectual disability 2.5 times more likely if low vitamin D during pregnancy – April 2016
- Ethnicity and low vitamin D levels during pregnancy – Jan 2016
- Metabolites of pregnant blacks vary with vitamin D level – Nov 2014
- Dark-skined mothers: preeclampsia 12X more likely if gestational hypertension – May 2014
- 78 percent of pregnant immigrants in Sweden had less than 10 ng low vitamin D – Nov 2013
- Depression in pregnant blacks strongly associated to vitamin D levels – Nov 2012
- Dr. Holick video on vitamin D - March 2013
- Dark skinned pregnant women far from equator were very vitamin D deficient – Sept 2012
- Pregnant blacks 50 pcnt more likely to be depressed if 3 ng less vitamin D – July 2012
- 80 percent of South Asian Women in UK had less than 10 ng of vitamin D in winter – April 2012
- Blacks have more pre-term births due to low nutrients such as vitamin D – Sept 2011
- Dark skin pregnancies and Vitamin D - many studies
- Vitamin D and fertility and birth problems with dark skin – Jan 2011
- Very low vitamin D for first pregnancies and those with dark skin – Jan 2011
- 97 percent of pregnant Blacks had less than 32 ng of vitamin D - 2010
- Pregnant women vitamin D insuficiency Black 97 Hispanic 81 White 67 percent – July 2010