Development of a predictive scoring system for vitamin D deficiency ‘Vitamin D Deficiency Predicting Scoring (ViDDPreS)’ based on the vitamin D status in young Japanese women: a nationwide cross-sectional study

Akiko Kuwabara, Eiji Nakatani, Hideaki Nakajima, Satoshi Sasaki, Kenichi Kohno, Kazuhiro Uenishi, Masaru Takenaka, Kyoko Takahashi, Akihiro Maeta, Nobuko Sera, Kaori Kaimoto, Masako Iwamoto, Hisaya Kawate, Mayumi Yoshida, Kiyoshi Tanaka and Naoko Tsugawa

Objective: Vitamin D deficiency (VDD) is common among young women and
causes various health problems, including those that occur during pregnancy and
childbirth. Thus, we investigated the risk factors for VDD in young Japanese
women and developed a simple risk scoring system called Vitamin D Deficiency
Predicting Scoring (ViDDPreS).
Design: A cross-sectional study, using the following factors for multivariate logistic
regression analysis to create the ViDDPreS score: residential area, season,
cumulative ambient ultraviolet-B irradiation, BMI, vitamin D supplement use, sun
exposure habits, frequency of habitual food intake and eating habits. The subjects
were randomly divided into development and test sets for analysis. Serum
25-hydroxivitamin D concentration of less than 20 ng/ml was defined as VDD.
Setting: Four regions (Hokkaido/Tohoku, Kanto, Chubu/Kinki/Shikoku and
Kyushu/Okinawa) in Japan.
Participants: Five hundred and eighty-three healthy women aged 18–40 years.
Results: In the development set, the VDD group (68·4 %) had higher proportions of
the following variables than the non-VDD group: residential area outside the Kanto
region; blood samples obtained in winter; low BMI (<18·5 kg/m2); vitamin D
supplement non-users; short time regularly spent outside on weekdays; intake of
fish, vitamin D-abundant fish, dried fish and redfish less than once a week. VDD
risk was classified as low, medium or high according to the ViDDPreS scores
including these contributing factors, with a test set C-index of 0·671.
Conclusion: We identified the risk factors for VDD in young Japanese women and
developed a simple risk scoring system that enables us to assess VDD risk and aid
in the development of appropriate prevention and treatment strategies for this
population.

Public Health Nutr

10.1017/S1368980024001708.

39327919