Children in the United States may be at risk of cardiovascular disease because they are not getting enough vitamin D, two studies have reported.

The studies, in the 3 August online edition of Pediatrics, both used data from the 2001-4 national health and nutrition examination survey. They were done because other studies indicated that US adults with low concentrations of vitamin D had a higher risk of cardiovascular disease, but little was known about low vitamin D concentrations in children and adolescents.

A study by Michal Melamed, an assistant professor of medicine and epidemiology at Albert Einstein …