Vitamin D during pregnancy can prevent neurodermatitis

/ Valerie Honcharuk, stock.adobe.com

Southampton – Replacement of cholecalciferol in pregnant women with proven vitamin D deficiency was demonstrated in a randomized study in British Journal of Dermatology (2022; DOI: 10.1111 / bjd.21721Reduce the frequency of eczema in the first year of life. After that, only the downward trend could be detected.

The UK Maternal Vitamin D Osteoporosis Study (MAVIDOS) was originally intended to investigate whether administration of vitamin D during pregnancy could improve bone density in children.

Epidemiological studies have shown that prenatal vitamin D deficiency has an adverse effect on bone growth with potential for lifelong consequences.

A total of 1134 women with a serum concentration of 25-hydroxyvitamin D of 25 to 100 nmol/L from the 14th week of gestation were selected to either replace cholecalciferol 1000 IU/day or placebo.

The primary objective of the study, which is to increase the bone mineral density of children at birth, was based on the in Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology (2016; DOI: 10.1016 / S2213-8587 (16) 00044-9(Published results, although post hoc analysis indicated some increase at age 4 years)GPMR Plus 2022; doi: 10.1002/jbm4.10651).

A beneficial side effect of vitamin D replacement could be protection against neurodermatitis, which also occurs more frequently in areas with little sunlight and has been associated with vitamin D deficiency in observational studies.

Team led by Keith Godfrey from University of Southampton It can now be shown that children whose mothers received cholecalciferol during pregnancy had neurodermatitis (atopic dermatitis) only half of the children who received placebo in the first 12 months of life. The odds ratio was 0.55 with a 95% confidence interval (CI) of 0.32 to 0.97.

However, the protective effect diminished over time and at 24 months of age the odds ratio 0.76 (0.47–1.23) was no longer significant. Even after 48 months, a protective effect could no longer be reliably demonstrated (odds ratio 0.75; 0.37–1.52).

There was also an interaction with the duration of breastfeeding. The protective effect of vitamin D supplementation was limited to children who had been breastfed for at least 1 month (odds ratio 0.48, 0.24-0.94). There was no reliable effect of vitamin D administration for a shorter lactation period (odds ratio 0.80; 0.29–2.17). Godfrey suspected that the substitution increased the concentration of vitamin D in breast milk.

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