Vitamin D deficiency admissions up 50pc

HOSPITALISATIONS for vitamin D deficiency have increased by more than 50 per cent since before the pandemic, data show, as experts link the rise to lockdowns, the cost of living and working from home.

Vitamin D helps the body to regulate calcium and phosphate levels, which are needed to keep bones and muscles healthy.

A deficiency can lead to muscle weakness, pain and fatigue, and in extreme cases bone deformities, such as rickets in children.

In 2018/19, there were 684 admissions in England for vitamin D deficiency, according to hospital episode statistics from NHS Digital.

In 2021/22, this increased by 52.7 per cent to 1,045.

Admissions with a primary or secondary diagnosis of vitamin D deficiency – meaning they may have been hospitalised for something else and later diagnosed with a deficit – rose 42.7 per cent, from 125,480 in 2018/19 to 179,096 in 2021/22. In the two months of 2022/23 so far, April-may, 144 primary and 27,589 primary or secondary diagnosis have been recorded.

During the autumn and winter everyone in the UK is advised to take a vitamin D supplement every day, but during the summer the body makes enough of the vitamin from direct sunlight.

Some foods provide a source of vitamin D, such as oily fish, red meat and breakfast cereals, but it’s not usually possible to get enough of it from diet alone.

Aisling Piggott, a registered dietitian and spokesman for the British Dietetic Association, said the increase in admissions is multifactorial, including more publicity on the vitamin’s benefits.

But she added there will also be a “hangover effect” from lockdown, as vitamin D is stored in the body and it takes a long time to become deficient and also recover from a deficiency.

“People’s vitamin D levels would have taken a hit during that period,” she said.