Hypovitaminosis D in Medical Inpatients

Abstract

The recent study by Thomas et al. (March 19 issue)¹ aroused concern that a substantial proportion of U.S. adults may be deficient in vitamin D. In this Boston-area study, more than half of the patients studied had serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations ≤15 ng per milliliter (38 nmol per liter). The authors noted an absence of data about the vitamin D status of the general population.¹ To fill this gap, we offer recent findings from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III, 1988–1994), in which serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D was measured by radioimmunoassay (Incstar, Stillwater, Minn.) in 15,778 noninstitutionalized adults.^2,3 Among these subjects, 9 percent had serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations ≤15 ng per milliliter ( Table 1 ). Less than 1 percent had very low values (50 ng per milliliter (125 nmol per liter).