Cross-Sectional Study of the Prevalence of Cobalamin Deficiency and Vitamin B12 Supplementation Habits among Vegetarian and Vegan Children in the Czech Republic

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216208%3A11120%2F22%3A43922905" target="_blank" >RIV/00216208:11120/22:43922905 - isvavai.cz</a>

Alternative codes found

RIV/00064173:_____/22:43922905 RIV/75010330:_____/22:00013829

Result on the web

<a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/nu14030535" target="_blank" >https://doi.org/10.3390/nu14030535</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nu14030535" target="_blank" >10.3390/nu14030535</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Cross-Sectional Study of the Prevalence of Cobalamin Deficiency and Vitamin B12 Supplementation Habits among Vegetarian and Vegan Children in the Czech Republic

Original language description

Vegetarian (VG) and vegan (VN) diets in childhood are of growing interest due to their perceived health and environmental benefits. Concerns remain due to the possible disruption of healthy growth and development of children because of the scarcity of evidence-based studies. Among the nutrients of special concern is vitamin B12. Therefore, the Czech Vegan Children Study (CAROTS) decided to examine the relationship between B12 metabolism parameters and B12 intake through diet and supplementation. We analyzed laboratory parameters within n = 79 VG, n = 69 VN, and n = 52 omnivores (OM) children (0-18 years old). There were no significant differences in levels of holotranscobalamin (aB12), folate, homocysteine (hcys), or mean corpuscular volume. However, there was a significant difference in levels of cyanocobalamin (B12) (p = 0.018), even though we identified only n = 1 VG and n = 2 VN children as B12 deficient. On the other hand, we identified n = 35 VG, n = 28 VN, and n = 9 OM children with vitamin B12 hypervitaminosis (p = 0.004). This finding was related to a high prevalence of over-supplementation in the group (mean dose for VG 178.19 +- 238.5 μg per day; VN 278.35 +- 394.63 μg per day). Additionally, we found a significant (p &lt; 0.05) difference between B12, aB12, and hcys levels of supplemented vs. non-supple- mented VG/VN children. This can show that the intake of vitamin B12 via diet in the VG group might not be sufficient. Secondly, we analyzed a relation between supplement use in pregnancy and breastfeeding and its impact on vitamin B12 levels of children aged 0-3 years. Out of n = 46 mothers, only n = 3 (e.g., 6.5%) were not supplemented at all. We have not identified any clinical manifestation of B12 deficiency and only n = 1 child with low serum cobalamin, a child who did not receive vitamin B12 supplementation and whose mother took only low doses of vitamin B12 (25/μg/day).To conclude, we did not observe any life-threatening or severe consequences of labor- atory-stated vitamin B12 deficiency; thus, our group was well supplemented. On the other hand, we have identified many subjects with vitamin B12 hypervitaminosis of unknown impact on their health. Further research and new guidelines for B12 supplementation among VG and VN children are needed.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

J_imp - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

30308 - Nutrition, Dietetics

Project

<a href="/en/project/NU21-09-00362" target="_blank" >NU21-09-00362: Cohort prospective study of emerging nutritional factors among families (KOMPAS)</a><br>

Continuities

P - Projekt vyzkumu a vyvoje financovany z verejnych zdroju (s odkazem do CEP)

Publication year

2022

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

Nutrients

ISSN

2072-6643

e-ISSN

2072-6643

Volume of the periodical

14

Issue of the periodical within the volume

January

Country of publishing house

CH - SWITZERLAND

Number of pages

19

Pages from-to

535

UT code for WoS article

000760013400001

EID of the result in the Scopus database

2-s2.0-85123284732