Objectives
The objective of our investigation is to determine the efficacy of the consumption of multiple micronutrients fortified milk (including vitamin D) on vitamin D status of schoolchildren aged 7-9 years in Morocco.
Methods
A total of 196 Children aged 7 to 9 years were recruited. The study was a longitudinal (over 9 months) interventional randomized, double-blinded and controlled one. Children were divided in two groups: a non fortified group (NFG) received daily 200ml of non fortified milk and a fortified group (FG) received daily 200ml of milk fortified with 30% of vitamin D RDI. Blood sample collections were performed at baseline (T0), 4 months (T4) and 9 months (T9).
Results
In the total sample, the average of age, weight and height was respectively 8.0±0.7years, 22.8±2.6kg and 121.5±5.2cm. No statistical significant difference was recorded between both groups. For malnutrition, the means of underweight, stunting and wasting indicators were -0.7±0.8SD, -0.9±0.8SD and -0.2±0.6SD, respectively. No child was overweight or obese. The comparison of improved vitamin D status between two groups shows at the end of the study a significant increase of vitamin D serum concentration in the FG (+14.52nmol/l) than NFG (+5.6nmol/l) (p=0.000001). The prevalence of vitamin D deficiency, at the beginning of the study was more than 70%. At the end of the intervention, we recorded a significant decrease of the prevalence between the NFG (32.5% improvement) and FG (57.6% improvement) (p= 0.004).
Conclusions
Our study demonstrated that the consumption of fortified milk maintained and increased circulating concentrations of 25(OH)D in school children aged 7-9, the generalization of fortified milk distribution is desired to fight against the micronutrient deficiency problem.