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Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D status of a large Chinese population from 30 provinces by LC–MS/MS measurement for consecutive 3 years: differences by age, sex, season and province

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Abstract

Purpose

We aimed to describe the vitamin D status and its distribution in different age groups, sexes, seasons, and provinces of a large Chinese population.

Methods

This study retrospectively analyzed 1,528,685 results of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) in the central laboratory of KingMed Diagnostics. The samples were from the individuals aged 0–119 years old in 30 provinces of China. Serum 25(OH)D was measured by an accurate commercial liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) method from January 2017 to December 2019. The subjects were stratified by age, sex, the season of blood collection, and the province of residence.

Results

The median 25(OH)D concentration was 25.5 ng/mL (interquartile range (IQR) 18.7–32.7 ng/mL) in males and 20.8 ng/mL (IQR 14.4–28.2 ng/mL) in females. Overall, the median 25(OH)D concentration decreased with age in both males and females. Males had a 0.2–2.4 ng/mL higher median 25(OH)D concentration than females in different age groups. Vitamin D deficiency (25(OH)D < 15 ng/mL for the individuals under 14 years old; < 20 ng/mL for the individuals over 14 years old) was found in 21.3% of males and 43.6% of females. Significant seasonal variation of serum 25(OH)D concentrations was repeatedly observed in 3 years, with median concentration higher in summer (25.3 ng/mL (IQR 19.3–31.9 ng/mL)) and lower in winter (18.5 ng/mL (IQR 12.3–26.6 ng/mL)). Vitamin D status varied by province. The median 25(OH)D concentration was the highest in Hainan (31.0 ng/mL (IQR 24.9–39.2 ng/mL)) and the lowest in Qinghai (14.4 ng/mL (IQR 9.6–20.0 ng/mL)). 25(OH)D2 was detected in 12.2% of the results, and no significant seasonal variation was observed.

Conclusion

In China, vitamin D deficiency is prevalent in the population participating in clinical vitamin D measurement. Age and sex differences in vitamin D levels were observed in our study. Seasonal variation and provincial differences are important aspects of serum vitamin D status. 25(OH)D2 cannot be ignored entirely in clinical measurement practice in China.

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Data availability statement

The data are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Funding

This research was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2021YFC2009300, 2021YFC2009305), the State Key Laboratory of Dampness Syndrome of Chinese Medicine (SZ2021ZZ30), the Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province (2019B1515120004, 2021A1515220099), Guangzhou Science and Technology Plan Projects (202002020038, 202103000025, 202201011506), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2022M710844) and Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine Bureau of Guangdong Province (20211150).

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Author notes

  1. Kai Bai, Heng Dong and Ling Liu contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Laboratory Medicine, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine (Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Chinese Medicine), Guangzhou, 510120, China

    Kai Bai, Haibiao Lin, Peifeng Ke, Xianzhang Huang, Xinzhong Wu & Qiaoxuan Zhang

  2. Second Clinical Medical College, Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou, 510120, China

    Kai Bai, Haibiao Lin, Peifeng Ke, Xianzhang Huang, Xinzhong Wu & Qiaoxuan Zhang

  3. Guangzhou KingMed Center for Clinical Laboratory Co., Ltd., Guangzhou, 510120, China

    Heng Dong, Xuhui She, Chang Liu, Mujun Yu, Zhihui Liang & Beibei Zhao

  4. KingMed College of Laboratory Medical of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, 510120, China

    Heng Dong, Xuhui She & Beibei Zhao

  5. Department of Paediatrics, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Guangdong Medical University (Longjiang Hospital of Shunde District Foshan City), Foshan, 528318, China

    Ling Liu

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  1. Kai Bai
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Contributions

Conceptualization, KB, LL, QZ and BZ; data curation, LL; formal analysis, KB, HD, CL and ZL; funding acquisition, QZ, XH, PK and HL; investigation, HD, XS, CL, MY and ZL; methodology, KB, HD, LL, QZ and BZ; project administration, XH, XW and BZ; resources, BZ; software, XS, CL and MY; supervision, XH, XW, PK, HL, and QZ; visualization, KB, HD, XS and MY; writing-original draft, KB; writing-review and editing, XW, QZ and BZ.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Xinzhong Wu, Qiaoxuan Zhang or Beibei Zhao.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Ethical approval

This study was approved by Guangzhou KingMed Diagnostics Center Ethics Committee (ethics approval code: 2020-031, approved 16 June 2020).

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Informed consent was waived due to the retrospective matter of data analysis.

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Bai, K., Dong, H., Liu, L. et al. Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D status of a large Chinese population from 30 provinces by LC–MS/MS measurement for consecutive 3 years: differences by age, sex, season and province. Eur J Nutr 62, 1503–1516 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00394-023-03094-z

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