Practice implications for preventing population vulnerability related to vitamin D status.
OBJECTIVE
To provide primary care clinicians with practice recommendations for the safe, individualized, effective, efficient evaluation, and treatment of vitamin D status for maximum health promotion and disease prevention.


METHODS
A review and synthesis of current scientific literature on vitamin D was conducted related to the physiologic impact of vitamin D, topics of debate, research and recommendations, adequate serum levels, daily supplementation, and deficiency treatment.


CONCLUSIONS
Inadequate vitamin D levels are not isolated to any one geographic, ethnic, or socioeconomic population, and exist without regard to gender, age, or health status. Conflicting vitamin D evidence and recommendations may leave patients vulnerable to vitamin D inadequacy, deficiency, or excess, and in turn, avoidable negative outcomes.
Nurse practitioners (NPs) must actively assess patient vitamin D status and educate patients in order to prevent negative health outcomes. Maintaining adequate vitamin D levels is an easy and cost-efficient adjunct to other health promotion and disease prevention measures. NPs who neglect the physiologic roles of vitamin D and potential patient vulnerability miss an opportunity to make an impact in both patient health and the economic healthcare burden related to acute and chronic disease.
Family Nurse Practitioner Program, Ida V. Moffett School of Nursing, Samford University, Birmingham, Alabama.
Andrea
A
Collins
D019587:Dietary Supplements; D006801:Humans; D064167:Recommended Dietary Allowances; D012307:Risk Factors; D014807:Vitamin D / Q000031:analogs & derivatives / Q000097:blood / Q000627:therapeutic use; D014808:Vitamin D Deficiency / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D014815:Vitamins / Q000627:therapeutic use
D014815:Vitamins; D014807:Vitamin D; C104450:25-hydroxyvitamin D
Vitamin D status; health promotion; vitamin D deficiency; vulnerable populations