THE ROLE OF VITAMIN D SUPPLEMENTS IN BONE AND TEETH HEALTH AMONG CHILDREN: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW

Background: In the literature, there are many studies that were conducted to assess the effect of vitamin D supplements on skeletal and non-skeletal functions however, most of these studies had focused on adult population with little is found among children and infant. Therefore, the aim of the current study was to systematically review the previous literature considering the role of vitamin D supplements in improving the bone and teeth health among children under the age of 18 years old.

Methodology: We searched Google Scholar, PubMed, The Cochrane Library, Web of Science databases using keywords related to vitamin D supplementation as “cholecalciferol” and “vitamin D supplement”, to targeted population as “children”, “infant”, “school-aged” and “Pre-school age”, to outcomes as “Rickets”, “fracture”, “serum vitamin D over 75 nmol/L”, “dental caries”, “bone health”, and “Calcium content” and route of administration as “Oral”, “Intramuscular (IM)” and “different concentration” and included all studies published between 2000 and 2022. Moreover, manual search through study identifiers or references from previous studies was conducted. This systematic review was conducted according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines

Results: The electronic search strategy conducted in this review ended in 875 hits which after removing of duplicated reduced to 360 studies. These 360 studies were considered eligible for further evaluation, from which 350 studies were excluded for different reasons as 245 studies based on title and abstract, 86 studies do not relevant to the subject of this study or sitting of this review, 17 consider replies of authors, 3 books, and 28 were reviews. At end, 10 articles were included in the qualitative synthesis of the present review

Conclusion: This systematic review has proven the importance of vitamin D supplements among children in improving their bone and teeth health and reducing the prevalence of rickets, fractures, teeth caries in children. More investigation of the possible mechanisms of these relations should be conducted.