Vitamin D Intake and Serum Levels in Pregnant and Postpartum Women
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Date
2023-08
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Abstract
Maternal vitamin D deficiency, which is highly prevalent in pregnant women in Europe, is linked to adverse health effects for both the mother and child. The objective was to assess vitamin D status in pregnant women by evaluating their dietary and supplemental vitamin D intake, serum vitamin D levels, parathyroid hormone levels, and lifestyle factors. This cross-sectional study, with a total of 735 participants (145 pregnant and 590 up to the seventh day postpartum), took place in Latvia. Blood samples, a food frequency questionnaire, and medical documentation were used for data collection. The median serum vitamin D concentration was 34.0 ng/mL, with pregnant women having higher levels (42.9 ng/mL) than postpartum women (31.8 ng/mL). There was no association between vitamin D serum concentration and dietary intake of vitamin D (p > 0.05), whereas there was a significant correlation with use of vitamin D supplements (r = 0.41; p < 0.001 in pregnant women and r = 0.35; p < 0.001 in postpartum women). This study demonstrated that a minority of pregnant women (21.9%) had optimal serum vitamin D concentration (>45 ng/mL), and diet had no significant impact on vitamin D levels. Thus, our proposed recommendation for vitamin D intake during pregnancy was 63 mcg (2500 IU) year-round for optimal levels in pregnant women in Northeastern Europe.
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Publisher Copyright: © 2023 by the authors.
Keywords
dietary intake, pregnancy, supplementation, vitamin D, 3.2 Clinical medicine, 3.3 Health sciences, 1.1. Scientific article indexed in Web of Science and/or Scopus database, Food Science, Nutrition and Dietetics
Citation
Meija, L, Piskurjova, A, Nikolajeva, K, Aizbalte, O, Rezgale, R, Lejnieks, A & Cauce, V 2023, 'Vitamin D Intake and Serum Levels in Pregnant and Postpartum Women', Nutrients, vol. 15, no. 15, 3493. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu15153493