Healthier Lipid Profiles with Vitamin D Supplementation in a Pilot Study in Argentinean Children of Two Ethnicities

Objective: to explore changes in lipid levels in two groups of children of different ethnicities who were able to access vitamin D supplementation versus those who were not. Methods: A prospective one-year study evaluated 87 San Antonio de los Cobres (SAC) Indigenous and 36 Buenos Aires (BA) urban schoolchildren aged 9.7 + 2.1 years between October 2013 and October 2014. SAC children included 70 (80.5%) treated with 100,000 IU/year of vitamin D and 17 (19.5%) untreated; and BA children included 25 (69,5%) treated and 11(30.5%) untreated. BMI, lipids, and 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) concentrations were measured at baseline and after one year. Results: There was a significantly lower prevalence of overweight/obesity in SAC (n = 7; 8%) versus BA (n = 7; 36.4%) children. There was a significant association between changes in (25(OH) D) and changes in HDL-C levels in SAC (r0.44; p < 0.01) and in BA (r0.34; p < 0.05). Multiple linear regression analyses showed that changes in (25(OH) D) were significantly associated with changes in HDL-C in SAC (Beta = 0.55, p = 0.02; R20.11) and BA children (Beta = 0.42, p = 0.04; R2 0.21) adjusted for age, gender, and BMI. Furthermore, multiple logistic regression analysis showed that children in the treated group had a likelihood six times greater of having HDL-C > 40 mg/dL than the untreated group, adjusted for age, gender, and BMI (OR 6.3: CI 2.0 -19.8; p < 0.01). Conclusion: These results suggest that children who had received vitamin D supplementation had significantly higher vitamin D status and HDL-C, as compared with non-supplemented children in both communities.