Stillbirths dropped in 2 countries after increasing Vitamin D fortification (Finland, Sweden) – Jan 2025

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Improved Vitamin D Status Is Associated With Lower Incidence of Stillbirth

Anticancer Res. 2025 Jan;45(1):243-250. doi: 10.21873/anticanres.17411 behind $30 paywall
Pelle G Lindqvist 1, Mika Gissler 2 3 4

Background/aim: Two retrospective studies of prospective cohorts showed doubled odds of birth asphyxia among women with low plasma vitamin D levels, and another study reported a four-fold increased risk of stillbirth. It was not known whether this was related to low sun exposure or to insufficient vitamin D per se. We aimed to assess if it was due to vitamin D status.

Patients and methods: We analyzed the incidence of stillbirth in relation to national vitamin D status for all pregnancies in Finland and Sweden between 1994 and 2021 (n >4.3 million). Due to 50% of the population having low plasma vitamin D, Finland implemented an extensive vitamin D food fortification program in 2003 and doubled it in 2009 because of inadequate results. After 2009, 10% of Finnish women had low vitamin D levels. Stillbirth incidence was related to changes using cross-tabulation with 95% confidence intervals.

Results: The stillborn incidence in Finland decreased from

• 4.1/1,000 (prior to 2003), to
• 3.4/1,000 (2004 to 2009), and to
• 2.8/1,000 after 2009.

In the meantime, the Swedish stillbirth rate remained constant at

• 3.9/1,000 until 2018, when the Finnish food fortification plan was implemented in Sweden.

Thereafter, the Swedish stillbirth incidence dropped to

• 3.2/1,000.

The rate of intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy, another hypoxic pregnancy complication related to low plasma vitamin D levels, did not drop.

Conclusion: In our large study of national vitamin D food fortification, improved vitamin D status was associated with a lower stillbirth rate in a dose-dependent manner.

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VitaminDwiki – Fortification with Vitamin D contains

136 items in Fortification category

Fortification works, even if food is cooked, but govts rarely fortifiy with enough
Govts, food producers, and families can fortify:
   milk,   yogurt,   beer,   bread,  cereals,  cooking oil,  soups,  jams,   jellys,   honey,   snack bars, etc.
Some interesting fortification articles

• Biofortification with Vitamin D - several studies
• Vitamin D fortification in Europe preventing 27,000 Cancer deaths, could prevent 129,000 – May 2022
• Vitamin D fortification could eliminate 1 in 10 Cancer deaths in the EU – May 2022
• After years of adding vitamin D, Finland now has 38 ng levels - March 2022
• Fortification with Vitamin D works – 16 studies of Danish experience – July 2021
• Vitamin D fortification of beverages – Review March 2022
• Bread fortified with Vitamin D - many studies 13+ studies
• International Conference of Vitamin D Fortification of Food (India) – Sept 2018
• 2400 IU of vitamin D needed to get most Northern adults above 20 ng – June 2020
• Vitamin D home fortification- don't wait 100 years for your govt

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24+ VitaminDWiki pages have FINLAND in the title

The list is automatically updated

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23+ VitaminDWiki pages have SWEDEN in the title

The list is automatically updated