Vitamin D Status of New Zealand Adults

Published online: 
14 March 2012
cover

Summary

Vitamin D plays a key role in bone health. A deficiency in vitamin D can cause weak and softened bones, which can lead to rickets in children, and osteomalacia and osteoporosis in adults.

This report found that, in 2008/09:

  • the majority of New Zealand adults (68.1 percent) had good levels of vitamin D
  • 4.9 percent of adults had vitamin D deficiency, including 0.2 percent of adults who had severe deficiency
  • 27.1 percent of adults were below the recommended level of vitamin D but did not have a vitamin D deficiency.

The report presents further findings about vitamin D status, by sex, age group, ethnic group, socioeconomic status, body size, region and month, for adults aged 15 years and over.

The results use the new guideline levels for vitamin D for New Zealand, as outlined in the 'Consensus Statement on Vitamin D and Sun Exposure in New Zealand', released by the Ministry of Health and Cancer Society of New Zealand in 2012.

Publishing information

  • Date of publication:
    14 March 2012
  • ISBN:
    (online) 978-0-478-39302-6
  • HP number:
    5460
  • Citation:
    Ministry of Health. 2012. Vitamin D Status of New Zealand Adults: Findings from the 2008/09 New Zealand Adult Nutrition Survey.
  • Ordering information:
    Only soft copy available to download
  • Copyright status:

    Owned by the Ministry of Health and licensed for reuse under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence.

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