Vitamin D and Calcium in Children 0-36 Months: A Scoping Review of Health Outcomes

Abstract

Objective: A scoping review of recent studies published on calcium and vitamin D intake (from foods or supplements) was commissioned to inform the work of updating Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)/World Health Organization (WHO) nutrient requirements for children aged 0–36 months. Methods: Updated literature searches were conducted across 5 electronic databases to identify all randomized controlled trials, cohort studies, nested case-control or case-cohort studies, and systematic reviews published after the 2009 U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s (AHRQ) evidence report, Vitamin D and Calcium: a Systematic Review of Health Outcomes. In total, 65 studies were summarized and analyzed in the present review. Results: There was a steady increasing trend in the number of publications reporting outcomes related to skeletal health, growth, and infectious disease from 2008 to 2019, although the number of published vitamin D studies was much larger than calcium studies. Conclusions: The data presented in this review can facilitate assessment of the variety of outcomes and the amount of potentially useful literature available for each outcome. The results of this scoping review can be used to guide the undertaking of the subsequent systematic reviews.