Table 1.

Average dietary calcium intake by country and study characteristics

Calcium intake (mg/day)	Vitamin D statusa (nmol/L)	Country	Survey years	Ages (years)	Female (%)	BMI (kg/m2)	Calcium intake assessment	N total	Representativeb	Female:male ratio	Age analysesc	SES analysesc
175	nd	Nepal	2003	≥ 20	62	19.4	FFQ and food record	317	No (local, small)	0.85
238	nd	Uganda	nd (pre-2011)	nd d			Recall	173 households	No (local, children, small)
297	nd	Colombia	2003	20–60			Food record	70	No (local, age, small)
313	> 75	Thailand	nd (pre-2008)	20–85		22.4	Recall	436	No (local, small)	0.70
335	> 75	Gambia	2011–2013	≥ 40	52		Food record	467	No (age, small)	0.78	Similar e
338	25–49	China	2002	2−101 d			Recall	68,962	No (children)			Rural (vs. urban) lower
342	nd	Indonesia	1998	nd			nd	nd	No (old)
345	> 75	Vietnam	2000	nd			FFQ	4080	No (local)
358	nd	Burkina Faso	2006	nd			Recall	1005 households	No (local)
384 f	nd	Ecuador	2012	19–60			Recall	10,592	No (age)	0.96
393	nd	Cape Verde	2002	All d			Food record	4824 households	No (children)
399	25–49	Malaysia	2002–2003	18–59	52		Recall	6886	No (age)	0.99	Similar e	Rural (vs. urban) lower
427	nd	Argentina	2004–2005	18–49	100		nd	4819	No (age, women)
429	25–49	India	2011–2012	≥ 18	50		Recall	306,329	Yes	0.83
440	nd	Philippines	2003	Alld			Food record	25,882	No (children)
444	nd	Mali	2007	15–49	100		Recall	108	No (local, women, small)
458	nd	Bolivia	2002	nd			FFQ	5746 households	Yes
462	nd	Pakistan	2008	≥ 18	100	23.8	Recall	200	No (local, women, small)
471	nd	Tanzania	1987	35–74			Recall	173	No (local, age, small, old)	Urban 0.91, rural 1.13	Older lower	Rural (vs. urban) higher
479	25–49	South Africa	1983–2000	≥ 15			Recall	3231	No (old)	0.65
483	25–49	South Korea	2010–2012	≥ 19	50		Recall	15,603	Yes			Food insufficient lower
487	nd	Barbados	2000	≥ 18		25.8	FFQ and recall	1739	Yes	0.89g	Older higher
488	50–74	Norway	1994–1995	24–70		25.6	FFQ	18,914	No (age, old)	0.81
489	nd	Guam	nd (early 2000s)	18–83			Recall	400	No (small)	0.87
492	50–74	Israel	1999–2001	25–64			Recall	2782	No (age, old)
495	nd	Egypt	2004	20–60	100h		Recall	1090	No (age, women)
498	nd	Myanmar	1998	nd			nd	nd	No (old)
505	50–74	Brazil i	2009	20–59/≥ 60		25.5/nd	Food record	21,003/4322	No (age)	0.89/0.95		Income groups similar
507	nd	Palestine	nd (pre-2012)	31–50	100		Recall	149	No (local, age, women, small)
529	nd	Bangladesh	2011	All d	51		Unclear	31,066	No (children)	0.96		Rural (vs. urban) lower
533	50–74	Japan	2003–2007	18–74			Food record	22,712	No (age)	0.99
587	> 75	Taiwan	2005–2008	19–64			Recall	1942	No (age)	0.92
588	nd	Botswana	2007	18–75	80	26.2	Recall	79	No (local, age, small)
607	nd	Tonga	2005–2006	40–59		32.2	Recall	34	No (local, age, small)	0.76
616	nd	Algeria	2009–2010	41–66 (71% of sample)		27.1	Recall	176	No (local, age, small)	1.18
636	nd	Nigeria	2003–2004	ndd			FFQ	13,142 households	No (children)			Rural (vs. urban) lower
664	nd	Ethiopia	2005	≥ 18		22.8	Recall	356	No (local, small)	0.75
672	nd	Morocco	2004	≥ 16	61		FFQ	691	No (local, small)		Older lower
673	nd	Hungary	2009	≥ 19			FFQ	3077	Yes	0.93	Older lower
673	nd	Costa Rica	1996–1998	20–65	50		Recall	60	No (age, small, old)
695	nd	Kuwait	2008–2009	≥ 19	55.3		Recall	1049	Yes	0.79	Similare
702	nd	Chile i	2014/2012	≥ 65/35–70	61/nd	27.4/29.1	FFQ	597/66	No (local, age, small)
728	50–74	Belgium	2004	≥ 19			Recall	nd	Yes	0.88	Older lower
760	50–74	Cameroon	2001	nd			nd	557 households	No (local, small)
765	25–49	Italy	2005–2006	≥ 18		25.4	Recall	2831	Yes	0.91	Older higher
773	25–49	Austria	nd (pre-2004)	≥ 55			nd	641	No (age, small)	1.06
782	50–74	Czech Republic	2005	45–69		27.8	FFQ	7913	No (local, age)	1.16
787	50–74	Canada	2004	≥ 19			Recall	35,107	Yes	0.86	Older lower
788	25–49	Russia	2005	45–69		26.5	FFQ	9098	No (local, age)	0.95
789	50–74	Spain	2002–2003	≥ 19			Recall	1923	Yes	0.94	Older lower
794	nd	Singapore	2010	18–69	50		FFQ	1647	No (age)	0.94	Older lower
805	50–74	Australia	2011–2012	≥ 19	53		Recall	9338	Yes	0.86	Older lower
805	nd	Mexico	2006	20–59	60		FFQ	15,746	No (age)	0.9		Urban vs. rural similar
807	25–49	New Zealand	2009	≥ 19		27.6	Recall	4721	Yes	0.83g	Older lower
830	25–49	Polandi	2002–2005/2010–2011	45–69/45–64		27.1/29.1	FFQ	9859/3862	No (local, age)	1.03/1.07		Rural (vs. urban) lower
837	nd	Jamaica	nd (pre-2000)	25–74	60	26.7	Recall	73	No (local, age, small, old)
838	nd	Serbia	1998 and 2003	30–74			Food record	1305	No (age)	younger 0.77, older 0.92	Older lower
856	25–49	Jordan	2012	≥ 18	51		Recall	55	No (small)
859	25–49	Iran	2001	≥ 40			Recall	1922	No (local, age)	0.91	Older lower
865	nd	Latvia	1997	19–64			Recall	32	No (age, small, old)
877	50–74	France	2005–2007	18–79			Food record	1082	Yes		Middle-age higher
923	nd	Portugal	1999–2003	≥ 19			FFQ	2974	Yes	1.09	Older lower
934	50–74	USA	2001–2010	≥ 19		28.4	Recall	22,823	Yes
942	25–49	Greece	1992–2001	33–72 (95% of sample)	59		Recall	1982	No (age, old)
958	25–49	Denmark	2000–2004	18–75			Food record	4479	Yes	0.94	Older lower
965	nd	Croatia	nd (early 2000s)	18–55	71	23.3	FFQ	161	No (local, age, small)	0.82
992	>75	Sweden i	1997	49–83/45–79	100/0	24.7/25.7	FFQ	61,433/48,850	No (age, old)	0.85
994	50–74	UK	1992–2004	25–72 (95% of sample)	70		Recall	5885	No (age)
1067	50–74	Switzerland	2006–2012	35–74	50	25.1	FFQ	4307	No (local, age)	0.90
1068	25–49	Germany	2005–2007	≥ 19			Recall	13,959	Yes	0.91	Older lower
1080	nd	Ireland	2010	18–90			Food record	1499	Yes
1097f	25–49	Finland	2002	25–64			Recall	2007	No (age)	0.89
1102	50–74	Netherlands	2010	19–69			Recall	2100	No (age)
1233f	25–49	Iceland	2003	30–85	52		FFQ	944	No (local, age, small)		Older higher

Table data are grouped according to emphasis (italics and normal text) by bands of average dietary calcium intake. See Electronic supplementary material—Appendix C for references

BMI body mass index, FFQ Food Frequency Questionnaire, N sample size, nd no data (not reported), SES socioeconomic status

^aSerum/plasma 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels country-level categorizations among adults. From Wahl et al. [3]

^bWas the study nationally representative and current? Local = survey conducted in specific towns, cities, or regions; age = restricted by age range; children = children included; women = women only; small = sample size < 1000; old = surveys conducted before 2000

^cDifferences in dietary calcium intake between different subgroups, by age or socioeconomic status; lower and higher refer to average calcium intake in noted subgroup. No assessment of statistical significance is implied

^dIncludes children

^eOr no pattern noted

^fExplicitly included dietary supplements; however, most studies did not report whether supplement intake was included

^gLess than 0.80 in younger age groups (18/19 to 29/30 years old)

^hMothers only

ⁱTwo complementary studies were included for these countries. Relevant data are reported for each study, separated by a forward slash, with the larger study reported first. Where only a single value is presented, the data were the same for both studies, except for calcium intake (which is an average across studies) and whether the studies are nationally representative (which is assessed across studies)