Suburban clustering of vitamin D deficiency in Melbourne, Australia.
OBJECTIVE
A high prevalence of mild to moderate vitamin D deficiency has been observed in women who have recently arrived from the horn of Africa and living in inner Melbourne. Vitamin D status of women with differ-ing age and ethnic distributions residing in other suburbs is unknown.


METHODS
A tertiary referral Women's hospital-based survey of serum 25(OH)D concentrations in 2,690 women aged 14-78 years residing in Mel-bourne between 1 July 2004 and 30 June 2005. We computed odds of serum 25(OH)D concentrations<50 nmol/L and used tests of homogeneity across different suburbs in Melbourne, Victoria.


RESULTS
Women with moderate vitamin D deficiency from all suburbs were young [29.1+/-7.2 years (mean+/-standard deviation)]. The odds of moderate vitamin D deficiency were highest in inner suburbs and Greenvale, Coburg, Pascoe Vale South, Fawkner, Broadmeadows and Campbellfield from the Hume-Moreland municipality (p value for homogeneity of odds<0.001).


CONCLUSIONS
Vitamin D deficiency ap-pears to be a growing health concern in Australia and may be more prevalent in younger women in Victoria than anticipated.
Erbas
Bircan
B
Centre for Molecular Environmental Genetic Analytic Epidemiology, School of Population Health, University of Melbourne, Carlton, Victoria, Australia. b.erbas@latrobe.edu.au
Ebeling
Peter R
PR
Couch
Dianne
D
Wark
John D
JD
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004641:Emigration and Immigration; D005006:Ethnicity; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D016017:Odds Ratio; D011159:Population Surveillance; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors; D014739:Victoria / Q000453:epidemiology; D014807:Vitamin D / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000097:blood; D014808:Vitamin D Deficiency / Q000097:blood / Q000453:epidemiology*
D014807:Vitamin D; C104450:25-hydroxyvitamin D