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Vitamin D supplementation in a healthy, middle-aged population: actual practices based on data from a French
P Caillet1, J C Souberbielle, S B Jaglal
11] Hospices Civils de Lyon, Pôle Information Médicale Evaluation Recherche, Unité d'Epidémiologie, Lyon, France [2] Inserm U INSERM 1033 Pavillon F, Service de Rhumatologie and de Pathologie Osseuse, Immunologie Clinique Cancérologie Osseuse, Lyon, France.
Background/Objectives:
The debate surrounding recommendations for vitamin D supplementation in middle-aged patients (that is, 20-60 years of age) with low serum concentrations of 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) is growing. Our aim was to describe practices regarding vitamin D supplementation in this age group, which are basically unknown.
Subjects/Methods:
We performed an analysis using exhaustive reimbursement data from the individuals in Rhône-Alpes area, a French region regrouping more than 6 million of inhabitants. The data were collected from the French Insurance Health-care System. Patients who were 20-60 years of age, had no severe comorbidities, had a 25(OH)D assay between 1 December 2008 and 31 January 2009 were identified. Those who received a subsequent prescription for vitamin D were included in this analysis. We described patterns of vitamin D supplementation by frequency and daily dose.
Results:
The sample in this study included 1311 patients. The mean age was 47.7 years (s.d.: 9.5) and the median age was 50.2 years. Most of the participants (that is, 85.9%) were women. A total of 372 distinct prescription patterns for vitamin D supplementation were observed. The two most frequent (that is, 32.6% in total) involved a unique dispensation of a high dose of either 200,000 (17.5%) or 100,000 IU (15.1%). Most prescribed supplements were based on vitamin D3 (65%), and the most prescribed forms were high dose ampoules (81.6%). Only 48.9% of the participants were given a maintenance prescription after the initial loading phase.
Conclusions:
Our results reveal a significant variability in the prescriptions for vitamin D supplementation from physicians in the French population. Moreover, less than half of the patients receive maintenance therapy after the initial loading phase of supplementation.
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