title: Low prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in elderly Afro-Caribbean men.
abstract: Vitamin D deficiency is highly prevalent worldwide, and is linked to several major chronic, inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. Vitamin D deficiency has not been evaluated in dark skinned individuals living in areas of high sun exposure utilizing more reliable mass spectrometry assay techniques. We determined the prevalence of 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) deficiency in Afro-Caribbean men on the tropical island of Tobago, where there is a high level of sunshine year round. Serum 25(OH)D2 and 25(OH)D3 metabolites were measured following extraction and purification using liquid chromatography and tandem mass spectrometry in 424 Afro-Caribbean men aged > 65 years from a larger population-based cohort study. The mean (+/- SD) serum total 25(OH)D concentration was 35.1 +/- 8.9 ng/mL. Deficiency (< 20 ng/mL) was present in only 2.8% and insufficiency (< 30 ng/mL) in 24% of the men. Multiple linear regression analysis identified age, BMI and daily vitamin D supplementation as the independent correlates of 25(OH)D. None of the men who consumed fish more than once per week had vitamin D deficiency, compared to 4% of the men who consumed fish once per week or less (P = .01, adjusted for age, BMI, and daily vitamin D supplementation). In conclusion, vitamin D deficiency is very uncommon in this Afro-Caribbean population. Longitudinal studies are needed to delineate the possible effects of high vitamin D levels in this population on major diseases hypothesized to be associated with vitamin D deficiency.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, Graduate School of Public Health, Pittsburgh, University of Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA. miljkovici@edc.pitt.edu
authors.forename: Iva
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Miljkovic
authors.forename: Lisa M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Bodnar
authors.forename: Jane A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Cauley
authors.forename: Clareann H
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Bunker
authors.forename: Alan L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Patrick
authors.forename: Victor W
authors.initials: VW
authors.lastname: Wheeler
authors.forename: Lewis H
authors.initials: LH
authors.lastname: Kuller
authors.forename: Joseph M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Zmuda
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D044383:Black People; D006801:Humans; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D015995:Prevalence; D014300:Trinidad and Tobago / Q000453:epidemiology; D014807:Vitamin D / Q000031:analogs & derivatives / Q000097:blood; D014808:Vitamin D Deficiency / Q000208:ethnology*
chemical_list: D014807:Vitamin D; C104450:25-hydroxyvitamin D