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Low vitamin D 5 times more likely in poor and ethnic neighborhoods (than the best in Dublin) – Nov 2016

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.”

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
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Seniors have more vitamin D - perhaps Calgary seniors supplement
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Attached files

ID Name Comment Uploaded Size Downloads
7284 Calgary map.jpg admin 02 Nov, 2016 35.08 Kb 821
7283 Calgary age.jpg admin 02 Nov, 2016 11.75 Kb 801
7282 Calgary born outside.jpg admin 02 Nov, 2016 12.01 Kb 833
7281 socio-demographic Calgary.pdf admin 02 Nov, 2016 1.40 Mb 756