title: Vitamin D levels in a paediatric population of normal weight and obese subjects.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Vitamin D exerts pleiotropic effects and few studies are available in the Italian population.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  Aim of our study was to evaluate vitamin D status in children living in Northern Italy.
  
  
  METHODS
  We studied vitamin D levels in a population of 113 normal weight (NW) and 444 obese (OB) children, prepubertal and pubertal. We considered vitamin D levels >20 ng/ml as normal, but also measured percentage of children with vitamin D levels higher than a cutoff of 30 ng/ml.
  
  
  RESULTS
  68.2 % of NW children showed normal levels of vitamin D, while 31.8 % showed a clear vitamin D deficiency. Only 28.3 % showed vitamin D levels higher than 30 ng/ml. Obese children showed 55.6 % of subjects with normal levels of vitamin D and 44.4 % of subjects a status of vitamin D deficiency. Only the 18.9 % showed vitamin D levels higher than 30 ng/ml. Mean vitamin D levels in NW children (27.3 ± 1.2 ng/ml) were higher than in OB children (21.8 ± 0.6 ng/ml). No differences have been found between prepubertal and pubertal children in terms of vitamin D levels.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our paediatric population demonstrates a low percentage of vitamin D sufficiency. In particular, obese children show only 19 % of subjects with normal levels while almost half of this population shows a clear deficiency. Further studies are needed to support these results and to evaluate the possible metabolic consequences.
authors.affiliation: Division of Pediatrics, Department of Health Sciences, University of Piemonte Orientale "Amedeo Avogadro", Via Solaroli 17, 28100, Novara, Italy.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bellone
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Esposito
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Giglione
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Genoni
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Fiorito
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Petri
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bona
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Prodam
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001835:Body Weight; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D063766:Pediatric Obesity / Q000097:blood* / Q000453:epidemiology; D011627:Puberty / Q000097:blood*; D014807:Vitamin D / Q000097:blood*; D014808:Vitamin D Deficiency / Q000097:blood* / Q000453:epidemiology
chemical_list: D014807:Vitamin D