Vitamin D deficiency during pregnancy

PITTSBURGH, Feb. 27 (UPI) -- Regular use of prenatal multivitamin supplements is not adequate to prevent vitamin D insufficiency in pregnant women, says a U.S. study.

A study by the University of Pittsburgh, published in the Journal of Nutrition, says a condition linked to rickets and other musculoskeletal and health complications, vitamin D insufficiency was found to be widespread among women during pregnancy, particularly in the northern latitudes.

"In our study, more than 80 percent of African-American women and nearly half of white women tested at delivery had levels of vitamin D that were too low, even though more than 90 percent of them used prenatal vitamins during pregnancy," said lead author Lisa Bodnar of the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health.

"The numbers also were striking for their newborns -- 92.4 percent of African-American babies and 66.1 percent of white infants were found to have insufficient vitamin D at birth."

Vitamin D deficiency early in life is associated with rickets -- a disorder characterized by soft bones and thought to have been eradicated in the United States more than 50 years ago -- as well as increased risk for type 1 diabetes, asthma and schizophrenia.