Young Asian women sought for vitamin D study

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Young Asian women sought for vitamin D study

Young Indian, Chinese and Korean women are being sought for a study to identify whether some ethnic groups are vitamin D deficient through lack of sun and therefore at higher risk of developing bone disease.

Researcher Pamela von Hurst, at Massey’s Institute of Food, Nutrition and Human Health in Albany, is doing the study because of concern at high rates of vitamin D deficiency and low bone mineral density she detected in an earlier, more general study of South Asian women.

Many older South Asian women studied during Ms Von Hurst’s doctoral research had immigrated to New Zealand. They reported that they avoided the sun because of pervasive public health warnings about skin cancer.

In one of her just-completed doctoral projects – the Surya Study – she investigated the effects of improving vitamin D status, through supplementation, on insulin resistance and bone health of South Asian women living in New Zealand. In a secondary study she examined the vitamin D status and bone mineral density of the same group of women. A significant portion of 20-29 year-olds tested had significantly lower bone mineral density than was normal for their age.

“Previous studies suggest many people are failing to achieve good vitamin D levels and this potentially affects their long term health,” says Ms Von Hurst. She recently won a Food Standards Australia New Zealand award for her work at the New Zealand Dietetic Association's conference, as well as this year's New Horizons for Women Trust research award.

The consequences of inadequate vitamin D are known to extend beyond poor bone health,” she says. “Vitamin D deficiency has been implicated in age-related muscle loss, cancer, heart disease, auto-immune conditions and type 2 diabetes. In New Zealand, the prevalence of some of these diseases in South Asians is considerably higher than that of the general population.”

For the Kalya study, the team will test the nutritional status of 150 women aged 20-29 from three different ethnicities – European, Indian, and Korean and Chinese. Enough European women have come forward, but more Indian, Korean and Chinese women are needed. Auckland-based young women interested in the Kalya Study can email for more information: kalya_study@massey.ac.nz

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