The widespread belief that Vitamin D supplements can help prevent bone fractures in children has been challenged after a clinical trial found that this is not true. According to a research published in the journal Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology, even if a child has a Vitamin D deficiency, the supplements do not increase bone strength or prevent bone fractures.
How the study was conducted?
The study, conducted in Mongolia, involved 8,851 schoolchildren aged 6 to 13 with 95.5 per cent having a vitamin D deficiency. Over three years, the children received weekly vitamin D doses, resulting in clinically normal vitamin D levels.
Scientists found no change in fracture risk or increased bone strength.
"The absence of any effect of sustained, generous vitamin D supplementation on fracture risk or bone strength in vitamin D-deficient children is striking," Ganmaa Davaasambuu, associate professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, said in a statement.
Notably, the research excluded children with rickets, a condition resulting from severe and prolonged vitamin D deficiency.
The findings, therefore, specifically apply to those without rickets.
What does it mean?
The study underscores the necessity for continued research and nuanced approaches to addressing vitamin D deficiency and its impact on childhood bone health.
Since these results have emerged from a randomised clinical trial, the findings hold clinical relevance.
Some experts, such as Nick Bishop from the University of Sheffield, however, questioned the methodology's reliance on ultrasound for assessing bone strength.
Also read | 6 Vitamin-D Sources for Vegetarians
"The study is very thorough in its design and execution although I don't think that the use of ultrasound to assess 'bone strength' is a widely accepted methodology; speed of sound will reflect bone size and so vary progressively with age," Bishop said in a statement.
Also watch | WION Fineprint | Breaking the myth of Vitamin D
But there still remains the need to promote vitamin D supplements and fortified foods, particularly during winters when sunlight-derived vitamin D is limited.
What is the bottom line?
The conventional wisdom about the role of vitamin D supplements in bone health during childhood now stands clinically disputed.
(With inputs from agencies)