Dublin's vitamin D map shows major differences in deficiency rates Health Canal
- “(12.5%) of the population of greater Dublin was found to be vitamin D-deficient,”
- “Other studies have shown an association between social deprivation and lower vitamin D, possibly due to diet as vitamin D-rich foods such as oily fish or fortified foods tend to be more expensive. Also, these locations in Dublin are more ethnically diverse compared to other areas, with higher numbers of non-Caucasians. Increased skin pigmentation plus ethnic lifestyle choices such as traditional clothing and/or dietary habits can also increase the risk of deficiency.”
Note: Ireland apparently defines deficiency as < 10 nanograms/l
- Why India's vitamin D deficiency is grim - 40 pages Feb 2014
- Overview Dark Skin and Vitamin D
- Vitamin D deficiency diseases in dark skinned people living far from equator – Meta-analysis Oct 2013
- 78 percent of pregnant immigrants in Sweden had less than 10 ng low vitamin D – Nov 2013
- Do blacks have a 5 year life penalty due to low vitamin D
- Diabetes (Type 1) 14X more likely in dark skin children with low levels of vitamin D – May 2015
- If heavily clothed, very little vitamin D – Dec 2012
- Vitamin D supplementation in Ireland - big increase in people with 20-50 nanograms in 20 years – June 2015
- Overview Middle East and vitamin D dark skinned AND heavily clothed
The actual study
The benefits of utilising geo-mapping for visualising the vitamin D status of Dublin city and the surrounding urban districts
Irish Journal of Medical Science (1971 -) pp 1–7, First Online: 21 October 2016, DOI: 10.1007/s11845-016-1517-4
E. LairdT. ShannonV. E. F. Crowley M. Healy
Context: There have been few published reports of visualising vitamin D status at a micro level, i.e., within large individual urban centres of countries.
Objective: To produce a visual map of the vitamin D status [25-hydroxy vitamin D—25(OH)D] of a large urban centre (n > 350,000) incorporating the regions of Dublin city that constitute the general practitioner catchment area of a large academic teaching adult hospital.
Design, setting and participants: An observational investigation of 5287 free living Irish adults (>18 years).
Results: Approximately, 15.2 % of those sampled in the winter period (October–February) were vitamin D deficient (<30 nmol/L) compared with 10.8 % of those sampled in the summer period (March–September). Vitamin D tests requested from the most social economically deprived urban locations (Dublin 8 and Lucan postal districts) had the highest rates of deficiency (23.5 and 20.4 %, respectively, both seasons). On average, females had a significantly higher 25(OH)D concentration compared with males (57.9 vs 52.3 nmol/L, respectively), while the younger participants (18–50 years) mean 25(OH)D concentration was 27 % lower in winter and 20.7 % lower in summer in comparison with the older participants (>50 years) (P < 0.0001).
Conclusions: For the first time in Ireland, a visual depiction of data can be used to aid in the rapid identification of vitamin D status trends within a major urban area. These findings provide useful data to help inform public health policy regarding endemic vitamin D insufficiency to help target the population groups and resident location areas most at risk.
Publisher wants $40 for the map and PDF
One of the references of the paper has an open PDF
Naugler C, Zhang J, Henne D, Woods P, Hemmelgarn BR (2013)
Association of vitamin D status with socio-demographic factors in Calgary, Alberta: an ecological study using Census Canada data. BMC Public Health 13:316
Download the PDF from VitaminDWiki
About a 2 to 1 difference in vitamin D levels across Calgary
Note: This is not the same as % differences in deficiency
Seniors have more vitamin D - perhaps Calgary seniors supplement