TABLE 3.
Means, SDs, medians, and 5th, 25th, 75th, and 95th percentiles of serum 25(OH)D concentrations in European populations using unstandardized and standardized data1
| Percentile |
|||||||||
| Study (country) (ref) | N | Serum 25(OH)D, nmol/L, via | Mean | SD | Median | 5th | 25th | 75th | 95th |
| HELENA (9 EU countries2) (15, 16) | 1006 | Original | 58.3 | 22.6 | 56.0 | 24.9 | 43.3 | 70.6 | 98.0 |
| VDSP-Calibrated | 49.2 (46.8, 51.6)3 | 15.3 (15.3, 15.4) | 50.2 (48.1, 52.2) | 22.0 (18.9, 25.1) | 38.5 (36.7, 40.4) | 61.2 (58.5, 63.8) | 71.2 (68.8, 73.6) | ||
| OPUS (baseline) (Denmark) (17, 18) | 779 | Original | 60.8 | 18.7 | 60.0 | 29.9 | 48.0 | 72.2 | 94.5 |
| VDSP-Calibrated | 56.1 (49.9, 62.3) | 16.7 (15.6, 17.8) | 55.4 (49.2, 61.5) | 28.5 (24.1, 33.0) | 44.7 (44.7, 50.1) | 66.3 (59.4, 73.1) | 86.2 (78.1, 94.2) | ||
| Tromsø Study: Fit Futures (Norway) (19–21) | 939 | Original | 46.6 | 23.1 | 42.8 | 16.9 | 28.6 | 61.2 | 90.0 |
| VDSP-Calibrated | 38.3 (37.1, 39.5) | 17.7 (17.3, 18.0) | 35.4 (34.2, 36.5) | 15.6 (14.8, 16.3) | 24.5 (23.6, 25.5) | 49.4 (48.0, 50.9) | 71.4 (69.5, 73.4) | ||
| HGS (Greece) (22) | 806 | Original | 69.0 | 18.8 | 67.0 | 41.3 | 56.4 | 80.8 | 102.5 |
| VDSP-Calibrated | 47.3 (39.5, 55.1) | 12.5 (11.3, 13.6) | 45.9 (38.2, 53.6) | 28.9 (22.8, 35.1) | 38.9 (31.8, 45.9) | 55.1 (46.6, 63.6) | 69.4 (59.6, 79.2) | ||
| INNS (Greece) (23) | 215 | Original | 49.5 | 22.8 | 43.0 | 25.0 | 29.8 | 67.0 | 87.6 |
| VDSP-LC-MS/MS | 54.3 | 15.7 | 54.6 | 30.2 | 43.2 | 65.3 | 79.1 | ||
| Cork BASELINE Birth Cohort Study (Ireland) (24) | 742 | VDSP-LC-MS/MS | 63.4 | 20.4 | 63.1 | 30.8 | 48.8 | 77.0 | 97.3 |
| KiGGS4 (Germany) (25) | 10,015 | Original | 47.8 | 27.5 | 42.5 | 14.4 | 29.3 | 61.4 | 97.8 |
| VDSP-Calibrated | 54.0 (53.7, 54.4) | 19.2 (18.8, 19.7) | 52.9 (52.2, 53.3) | 24.1 (23.6, 24.5) | 39.4 (39.0, 40.0) | 71.6 (71.3, 71.8) | 82.9 (82.4, 83.5) | ||
| NDNS (1–18 y)4,5 (United Kingdom) (26) | 511 | Original | 47.1 | 22.0 | 45.1 | 15.1 | 30.7 | 61.9 | 87.9 |
| VDSP-Calibrated | 48.8 (45.8, 51.8) | 19.2 (18.2, 20.3) | 48.2 (45.9, 50.4) | 19.0 (16.1, 21.9) | 34.0 (32.1, 35.9) | 64.5 (60.7, 68.2) | 81.1 (73.5, 87.9) | ||
| NDNS (≥19 y)4,5 (United Kingdom) (26) | 977 | Original | 44.8 | 22.6 | 41.4 | 14.1 | 26.7 | 59.8 | 86.5 |
| VDSP-Calibrated | 46.6 (43.6, 49.6) | 20.0 (19.0, 21.1) | 44.6 (42.5, 46.5) | 17.7 (14.7, 20.7) | 30.3 (28.2, 32.3) | 62.5 (59.0, 66.1) | 80.5 (73.4, 86.4) | ||
| DEGS4 (Germany) (27, 28) | 6995 | Original | 46.3 | 24.6 | 43.0 | 14.0 | 28.0 | 60.0 | 90.0 |
| VDSP-Calibrated | 50.1 (49.6, 50.5) | 18.1 (17.8, 18.4) | 47.7 (46.9, 48.5) | 25.3 (25.3, 26.1) | 36.1 (35.4, 36.1) | 60.8 (60.0, 61.6) | 84.0 (82.4, 84.9) | ||
| Tromsø Study–6th Survey (Norway) (29–31) | 12,817 | Original | 57.8 | 19.3 | 55.7 | 30.1 | 44.6 | 68.4 | 91.5 |
| VDSP-Calibrated | 65.0 (55.2, 74.7) | 17.6 (16.4, 18.9) | 63.5 (54.0, 73.2) | 39.1 (30.7, 47.1) | 53.0 (44.3, 61.9) | 74.9 (64.6, 85.1) | 95.3 (83.2, 107.4) | ||
| NHS (Netherlands) (32) | 2627 | VDSP-LC-MS/MS | 59.5 | 21.7 | 59.1 | 25.1 | 44.6 | 73.1 | 95.9 |
| LASA (Netherlands) (33) | 915 | Original | 65.3 | 21.8 | 63.7 | 32.8 | 49.0 | 79.7 | 103.0 |
| VDSP-Calibrated | 64.7 (60.3, 69.2) | 22.6 (21.7, 23.5) | 63.1 (58.7, 67.5) | 31.1 (28.0, 34.2) | 47.9 (44.1, 51.7) | 95.3 (74.7, 84.8) | 103.9 (97.9, 109.9) | ||
| AGES–Reykjavik (Iceland) (34) | 5519 | Original | 53.0 | 23.1 | 51.7 | 18.2 | 35.7 | 67.4 | 93.9 |
| VDSP-Calibrated | 57.0 (53.8, 60.0) | 17.8 (17.7, 17.9) | 59.1 (55.9, 62.2) | 26.2 (21.7, 30.6) | 43.8 (41.4, 46.3) | 68.8 (66.0, 71.3) | 85.4 (81.2, 88.6) | ||
| Finnish Migrant Health and Wellbeing Study (Maamu) (Finland) (35, 36) | 1310 | Original | 44.9 | 23.6 | 39.5 | 18.0 | 28.0 | 57.0 | 87.0 |
| VDSP-Calibrated | 45.5 (43.7, 47.3) | 21.9 (21.5, 22.4) | 40.7 (39.4, 41.9) | 18.1 (16.1, 20.0) | 28.6 (27.1, 30.0) | 59.1 (57.2, 60.9) | 87.6 (84.4, 90.8) | ||
VDSP-calibrated refers to the sample standardized by the VDSP protocol with the subset reanalyzed by LC-MS/MS. In VDSP LC-MS/MS, the whole sample was analyzed by standardized LC-MS/MS. AGES, Age, Gene/Environment Susceptibility; DEGS, German Health Interview and Examination Survey for Adults; EU, European Union; HELENA, Healthy Lifestyle in Europe by Nutrition in Adolescence; HGS, Healthy Growth Study; INNS, Infant’s Nourishment and Nutritional Status; KiGGS, German Health Interview and Examination Survey for Children and Adolescents; LASA, Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam; LC-MS/MS, liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry; NDNS, National Diet and Nutrition Survey; NHS, New Hoorn Study; OPUS, Optimal well-being, development and health for Danish children through a healthy New Nordic Diet; ref, reference; VDSP, Vitamin D Standardization Program; 25(OH)D, 25-hydroxyvitamin D.
Greece, Spain, Italy, Hungary, Austria, France, Belgium, Germany, and Sweden.
95% CIs on VDSP-calibrated estimates in parentheses (all such values).
Based on unweighted estimates for comparison with other studies, weighted data are presented separately for these 4 surveys in Table 5.
The NDNS was of individuals aged ≥1.5 y, but for this work, to allow comparison with other children and adult/older adult populations, the sample was stratified into 1–18 y and ≥19 y. NDNS total: n = 1488.