Vitamin D supplements may reduce fracture risk in children less than six years of age, the American Journal of Epidemiology reports.

Researchers matched 206 healthy children with a fracture (aged 43 months) with 343 controls and adjusted for potential confounders such as skin type, fracture history, waist circumference, outdoor play and birth weight.

Neither serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentration nor intake of cows’ milk significantly reduced fracture risk but children who took vitamin D supplements were 58 per cent less likely to fracture a bone than controls. The 24 per cent reduction in children who used multivitamins was not statistically significant

The authors comment that longitudinal studies should “elucidate the role of vitamin D in early-childhood fracture risk”.

^{DOI: 10.1093/aje/kww204}