ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Public Health and Nutrition
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1641065
This article is part of the Research TopicImpact of New Vitamin D Guidelines on Pediatric and Adult Health: Insights, Evidence, and ImplicationsView all 5 articles
Different diagnostic criteria influence the determination of Vitamin D nutritional status in children: A cross-sectional study
Provisionally accepted
- 1Quanzhou Women and Children’s Hospital, Quanzhou, China
- 2The School of Clinical Medicine, Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou, China
- 3Jilin University of the Arts, Changchun, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Objective: To assess Vitamin D status in children aged 0-6 years in Quanzhou, China, and compare the impact of diagnostic criteria on deficiency/sufficiency classification.: This cross-sectional study enrolled 1,183 healthy children aged 0-6 years (January 2022-March 2023). Serum 25(OH)D levels were measured via ELISA, and anthropometric data were collected. Participants were stratified by sex, season, age, BMI, and Vitamin A status to analyze Vitamin D variations. Diagnostic criteria impacts on classification were evaluated. Results: Mean serum 25(OH)D was 73.02 nmol/L (IQR: 58.48-89.09), with no sex-based differences (P > 0.05). Levels varied by season (highest in summer: 84.70 nmol/L; lowest in winter: 61.30), age(infants > toddlers > preschoolers), and BMI (low > normal > overweight/obese; all P.adj < 0.05). Using Criterion I, 2.46% were deficient, 9.97% insufficient, and 87.57% sufficient (χ²=1589.053, P < 0.001).With Criterion II, rates shifted to 12.43%, 40.74%, and 46.83%, respectively (χ²=239.271, P < 0.001).Classification discrepancies were significant across subgroups (sex, season, age, BMI; all P.adj < 0.05), with poor inter-criteria agreement (Kappa=0.071, P < 0.001). Age, season, BMI, and Vitamin A independently predicted sufficiency (P < 0.05).Vitamin D levels in Quanzhou's 0-6-year-olds are generally sufficient, though toddlers/preschoolers may require supplementation. Diagnostic criteria significantly alter deficiency/sufficiency rates (e.g., 2.46% vs. 12.43% deficiency under different cutoffs), underscoring the need for standardized guidelines.
Keywords: Vitamin D, 25(OH)D, Children, criteria, Cross-sectional study
Received: 11 Jun 2025; Accepted: 31 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhu, Zhu, Liu, Huang, Huang and Lin. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Weihua Lin, Quanzhou Women and Children’s Hospital, Quanzhou, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.