Vitamin D Status in Adolescents during COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross-Sectional Comparative Study

Meoli, Martina; Muggli, Franco; Lava, Sebastiano A.G.; Bianchetti, Mario G.; Agostoni, Carlo; Kocher, Claudine; Bührer, Thomas W.; Ciliberti, Letizia; Simonetti, Giacomo D.; Milani, Gregorio P.

doi:10.3390/nu13051467

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Vitamin D Status in Adolescents during COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross-Sectional Comparative Study

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Facoltà di Scienze Biomediche, Università della Svizzera Italiana, 6900 Lugano, Switzerland

Pediatric Cardiology Unit, Department of Pediatrics, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois, University of Lausanne, 1011 Lausanne, Switzerland

Pediatric Unit, Fondazione IRCCS Ca’ Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, via della Commenda 9, 20122 Milan, Italy

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Department of Clinical Sciences and Community Health, Università degli Studi di Milano, 20122 Milan, Italy

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Swiss Department of Defence, Medical Intelligence, 3000 Bern, Switzerland

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Pediatric Institute of Southern Switzerland, Ospedale San Giovanni, 6500 Bellinzona, Switzerland

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

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These authors contributed equally to this work.

Academic Editor: Tyler Barker

Nutrients 2021, 13(5), 1467; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13051467

Received: 12 March 2021 / Revised: 18 April 2021 / Accepted: 23 April 2021 / Published: 26 April 2021

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nutrition within and beyond Corona Virus)

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Abstract

Vitamin D has been claimed to be effective in the response to infections, including the respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). It is supposed that lockdown measures and fear of SARS-CoV-2 infection might reduce vitamin D levels through the modification of lifestyle. However, very few data exist on the association between lockdown measures and vitamin D status in humans. For this cross-sectional comparative study, adolescents (n = 298) aged 18 to 19 years were enrolled during the compulsory military fitness-for-duty evaluation between July and December 2020 in Southern Switzerland. Beyond anthropometric measurements, participants filled in a structured questionnaire about their lifestyle and a blood specimen was sampled for the determination of total 25-hydroxy-vitamin D. The obtained data were compared with those of 437 adolescents enrolled at the military fitness-for-duty evaluation during the same period of the year in the context of the CENERI study (2014–2016). The anthropometric measures were similar between the two study groups. The levels of vitamin D were also comparable (77 (64–91) vs. 74 (60–92) nmol/L, p = 0.50; median and interquartile range). A total of 38 (13%) and 43 (9.8%) subjects presented insufficient (<50 nmol/L) levels of vitamin D (p = 0.42) during the current pandemic and in the CENERI study, respectively. These data do not support the hypothesis that during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, late adolescents are at higher risk of vitamin insufficiency. View Full-Text

Keywords: lockdown; complications; adolescents; vitamins; diet; insufficiency; pandemic; COVID19; SARS-CoV-2; prevention

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MDPI and ACS Style

Meoli, M.; Muggli, F.; Lava, S.A.G.; Bianchetti, M.G.; Agostoni, C.; Kocher, C.; Bührer, T.W.; Ciliberti, L.; Simonetti, G.D.; Milani, G.P. Vitamin D Status in Adolescents during COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross-Sectional Comparative Study. Nutrients 2021, 13, 1467. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13051467

AMA Style

Meoli M, Muggli F, Lava SAG, Bianchetti MG, Agostoni C, Kocher C, Bührer TW, Ciliberti L, Simonetti GD, Milani GP. Vitamin D Status in Adolescents during COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross-Sectional Comparative Study. Nutrients. 2021; 13(5):1467. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13051467

Chicago/Turabian Style

Meoli, Martina, Franco Muggli, Sebastiano A.G. Lava, Mario G. Bianchetti, Carlo Agostoni, Claudine Kocher, Thomas W. Bührer, Letizia Ciliberti, Giacomo D. Simonetti, and Gregorio P. Milani. 2021. "Vitamin D Status in Adolescents during COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross-Sectional Comparative Study" Nutrients 13, no. 5: 1467. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13051467

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