Low Childhood Vitamin D Signals High CVD Risk in Adulthood
Levels of 25-hydroxy (OH) vitamin D below 37 nmol/L during childhood were significantly associated with an increased risk for adult-onset atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (CVD) events.
METHODOLOGY:
Researchers analysed data from a prospective study in Finland to evaluate the relationship between low levels of vitamin D during childhood and adult-onset atherosclerotic CVD events.
They included 3516 participants (mean age at baseline, 10.5 years; 50.9% girls) whose serum concentrations of 25-OH vitamin D were measured in 2010 from stored frozen samples collected in 1980 when the participants were 3-18 years old.
The association between atherosclerotic CVD outcomes during adulthood and 25-OH vitamin D level cut points ranging from 31 to 43 nmol/L during childhood was examined. Levels < 30 nmol/L were used as a cut point for vitamin D deficiency.
TAKEAWAY:
By 2018, 95 participants (2.7%) had been diagnosed with at least one atherosclerotic CVD event, with 47 years being the median age at the first event.
Low levels of 25-OH vitamin D during childhood were significantly associated with an increased risk for atherosclerotic CVD events during adulthood at cut points of 37 nmol/L (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR], 1.84), 35 nmol/L (aHR, 2.19), 33 nmol/L (aHR, 1.76), and 31 nmol/L (aHR, 2.07; P < .05 for all).
< .05 for all). The findings remained consistent when adjusting for adult vitamin D levels or when using the vitamin D deficiency cut point of < 30 nmol/L.
Nearly one fifth of the young participants did not achieve the vitamin D level cut point of > 37 nmol/L after about four decades of follow-up.
IN PRACTICE:
"The results may thus have implications in future prevention of ASCVD [atherosclerotic CVD], and easy and cost-beneficial CVD risk mitigation via supporting optimized 25-OH-vitamin D supplementation during childhood," the authors wrote.
SOURCE:
This study was led by Jussi Niemelä, MD, Turku University Hospital, Turku, Finland. It was published online on April 29, 2025, in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology .
LIMITATIONS:
The measurement of baseline levels of 25-OH vitamin D from stored serum samples may have been subject to error. The findings from this ethnically homogeneous study population may not be generalisable to other European populations. Causality could not be established from the observed associations.
DISCLOSURES:
No funding information was provided for this study, and the authors reported having no conflicts of interest.
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