Low Vitamin D in Southern Europe – 1 in 3 had less than 20 ng (630,000 Europeans) Sept 2018

A systematic review of vitamin D status in southern European countries.

Eur J Nutr. 2018 Sep;57(6):2001-2036. doi: 10.1007/s00394-017-1564-2. Epub 2017 Oct 31.
Manios Y1, Moschonis G2, Lambrinou CP3, Tsoutsoulopoulou K3, Binou P3, Karachaliou A3, Breidenassel C4, Gonzalez-Gross M4, Kiely M5,6, Cashman KD5,7.

VitaminDWiki

Many maps and tables in the PDF
~ 10% < 10 ng

Items in both categories Europe and Deficiency are listed here:


Vast majority of Europeans have less than 30 ng of Vitamin D – Aug 2016

StudyCountries< 30 ng
HELENA 9 EU 97%
OPUS Denmark87%
Tromsø Study: Fit Futures Norway 96%
HGS Greece 97%
INNS Greece 90%
Cork BASELINE Birth Ireland 84%
NDNS 1–18 y United Kingdom 90%
NDNS >18 y United Kingdom 91%
DEG4 Germany 91%
Tromsø Study–6th Survey Norway 75%
NHS Netherlands 78%
LASA Netherlands 68%
AGES–Reykjavik Iceland 86%
Finnish Migrant Health . . Finland89%
NANS Ireland 81%
Health 2011 Finland 76%
HUBRO Norway 66%
Health 2006 Denmark 68%

Optimum

4,000 IU daily (or 50,000 IU twice a month) would get most > 30 ng

 Download the PDF from Sci-Hub VitaminDWiki

PURPOSE:
Despite an acknowledged dearth of data on serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) concentrations from Southern European countries, inter-country comparison is hampered by inconsistent data reporting. The purpose of the current study was to conduct a systematic literature review of available data on serum 25(OH)D concentrations and estimate vitamin D status in Southern European and Eastern Mediterranean countries, both at a population level and within key population subgroups, stratified by age, sex, season and country.

METHODS:
A systematic review of the literature was conducted to identify and retrieve scientific articles reporting data on serum 25(OH)D concentration and/or vitamin D status following standard procedures.

RESULTS:
Data were extracted from 107 studies, stratified by sex and age group, representing 630,093 individuals. More than one-third of the studies reported mean 25(OH)D concentrations below 50 nmol/L and ~ 10% reported mean serum 25(OH)D concentrations below 25 nmol/L. Overall, females, neonates/ infants and adolescents had the higher prevalence of poor vitamin D status. As expected, there was considerable variability between studies. Specifically, mean 25(OH)D ranged from 6.0 (in Italian centenarians) to 158 nmol/L (in elderly Turkish men); the prevalence of serum 25(OH)D < 50 nmol/L ranged from 6.8 to 97.9% (in Italian neonates).

CONCLUSIONS:
Contrary to expectations, there was a high prevalence of low vitamin D status in the Southern Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean regions, despite abundant sunshine. These data further emphasize the need for strategies, such as fortification of foods with vitamin D and/or vitamin D supplementation, which will be tailored to the needs of specific population groups with higher risk of insufficiency or deficiency, to efficiently tackle the pandemic of hypovitaminosis D in Europe.

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