High prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in Asia: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

Vitamin D deficiency is a worldwide health problem. However, the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in Asian populations is unclear. The aims of our study were to investigate the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency and its association with different health outcomes in Asia. Searches for studies published from January 2009 to January 2021 were performed in the MEDLINE (via PubMed), EMBASE, and Web of Science databases. This study was registered in the PROSPERO database (CRD42021229841). In total, 472 studies with 746,564 subjects were included in the meta-analysis. The mean serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25[OH]D) concentration was 49.39 nmol/L; 20.93% of the participants had 25(OH)D levels <25 nmol/L, 22.82% had levels <30 nmol/L, 57.69% had levels <50 nmol/L, and 76.85% had levels <75 nmol/L. This review found that the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in Asia is high. The factors significantly related to vitamin D deficiency were gender, age, altitude, region, and specific diseases (diabetes, cancer, fracture, systemic lupus erythematosus [SLE], fatty liver disease, osteopenia, thyroiditis, anemia, hepatitis, metabolic diseases, and dermatitis). These findings may serve as the foundation for more detailed public health strategies and policies on this issue.

Supplemental data for this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.1080/10408398.2021.1990850

Keywords:

• 25-Hydroxyvitamin D
• Asia
• meta-analysis
• systematic review
• vitamin D

Disclosure statement

No conflict of interest exits in the submission of this manuscript. All authors gave final approval and agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

Funding

This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province (Grant No.: LQ19H140006), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No.: 81901051), and medical and health science and technology project of Zhejiang province (Grant No.: 2021450552).