Vitamin D Deficiency Risk Assessment for Service Members

The more YES answers you have, the more aware you should be of your vitamin D intake.
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Column 1 of this table shows Yes/No and a fillable circle for someone to choose Yes or No to each of the risk factors that follow. Column 2 shows these risk factors. Column 3 shows the military considerations related to each risk factor.   Yes/No Risk factor in row: A 1m I stationed above 35 degrees latitude? Corresponding military consideration in row 1: Most CONUS installations are north of 35 degrees latitude. Base reference points include Fort Liberty, NC, Vance Air Force Base, OK, and China Lake Naval

Published on: December 5, 2024

References

Arabi, A., El Rassi, R., & El-Hajj Fuleihan, G. (2010). Hypovitaminosis D in developing countries—prevalence, risk factors and outcomes. Nature Reviews Endocrinology, 6(10), 550–561. doi:10.1038/nrendo.2010.146

Cashman, K. D. (2020). Vitamin D deficiency: Defining, prevalence, causes, and strategies of addressing. Calcified Tissue International, 106(1), 14–29. doi:10.1007/s00223-019-00559-4

Cui, A., Zhang, T., Xiao, P., Fan, Z., Wang, H. & Zhuang, Y. (2023). Global and regional prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in population-based studies from 2000 to 2022: A pooled analysis of 7.9 million participants. Frontiers in Nutrition, 10, 1070808. doi:10.3389/fnut.2023.1070808

Farina, E. K., Taylor, J. C., Means, G. E., Murphy, N. E., Pasiakos, S. M., Lieberman, H. R., & McClung, J. P. (2017). Effects of deployment on diet quality and nutritional status markers of elite U.S. Army special operations forces soldiers. Nutrition Journal, 16(1). doi:10.1186/s12937-017-0262-5

Fogleman, S. A., Janney, C., Cialdella-Kam, L., & Flint, J. H. (2022). Vitamin D deficiency in the military: It's time to act!. Military Medicine, 187(5-6), 144–148. doi:10.1093/milmed/usab402

Henriques, M., Rodrigues, D., Viegas, S., Serranheira, F., & Sacadura-Leite, E. (2023). Vitamin D status in active duty Navy military personnel: A systematic review. Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 80(6), 353–360. doi:10.1136/oemed-2022-108710

Holick, M. F. (2020). Sunlight, UV radiation, vitamin D, and skin cancer: How much sunlight do we need? Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, 1268, 19–36. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-46227-7_2

Hussain, S., Elnajeh, M. (2020). Prevalence and Risk Factors for Hypovitaminosis D among Healthy Adolescents in Kota Bharu, Kelantan. Journal of the ASEAN Federation of Endocrine Societies, 35(2),176–180. doi: 10.15605/jafes.035.02.05

Institute of Medicine (2011). Dietary reference intakes for calcium and vitamin D. The National Academies Press, Washington, D.C. Retrieved 2 October 2024 from https://ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK56070/

Kelly, D. C., Fan, M., Langton, R. S., & Stahlman, S. L. (2024). Vitamin D deficiency trends, risk factors, and occupational risk in active component service members of the U.S. Armed Forces, 2018–2022. MSMR, 31(8), 2–7. Retrieved 2 October 2024 from https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11413132/

McCarthy, M. S., Elshaw, E. B., Szekely, B. M., & Pflugeisen, B. (2017). Health promotion research in active duty Army soldiers: The road to a fit and ready force. Nursing Outlook, 65(5S), S6–S16. doi:10.1016/j.outlook.2017.06.009

Rittenhouse, M., Scott, J., & Deuster, P. (2020). Healthy eating index and nutrition biomarkers among Army soldiers and civilian control group indicate an intervention is necessary to raise omega-3 index and vitamin D and improve diet quality. Nutrients, 13(1). doi:10.3390/nu13010122

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