US children are not getting enough vitamin D, studies conclude

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 …