Low calcium intake and hypovitaminosis D in adolescent girls

We recently reported that 73% of adolescent girls attending an inner city school in Manchester, UK had hypovitaminosis D (serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentration <30 nmol/l). However, none of the subjects had clinical features of vitamin D deficiency or disturbance of their serum calcium or inorganic phosphate concentrations.1 Rajeswari et al 2 have suggested that low dietary calcium intake, which is common in many parts of India, exacerbates symptoms of vitamin D deficiency. We studied 50 post-menarchal girls from a state-run school in Pune, India during February 2006, using a similar protocol to that …