Race/ethnicity and Overweight/obesity as Contributors to Serum Vitamin D Insufficiency in Urban Schoolchildren

Vitamin D insufficiency [vitDinsuff; serum 25(OH)D < 20 ng/ml] is prevalent among racial/ethnic minorities and overweight/obese individuals, but these relationships are still not well understood. Using data from 4 th –8 th grade schoolchildren enrolled in the Daily D Health Study from the Boston area, we used multivariable logistic regressions to assess the associations between vitDinsuff and race/ethnicity and overweight/obesity, adjusting for age and sex. Among 311 children, mean (sd) age was 11.9 (1.5) years, 52.4% were female, 25(OH)D was 18.4 (6.8) ng/ml, 60.1% were vitDinsuff, and 45.3% overweight/obese. Racially, 38.3% were white, 15.1% black, 16.7% Hispanic, 11.9% Asian, and 18.0% multiracial/other. The adjusted odds of vitDinsuff was 2.2 times higher among racial/ethnic minority children relative to white children (CI:1.4–3.6, p=0.001). An interaction was observed between race/ethnicity and overweight/obesity (p=0.08). The association between vitDinsuff and overweight/obesity was positive among Hispanics (adjOR=2.7, CI:0.8–9.2, p=0.10), inverse among multiracial/other children (adjOR=0.24, CI:0.07–0.81, p=0.02), and near neutral among whites, blacks, and Asians (adjOR=0.81, 1.07, and 0.87, respectively). The reason for the differential association between vitDinsuff and overweight/obesity between different racial/ethnic groups of children warrants further investigation. Grant Funding Source : NIH/ODS #3R01HL106160