A new study published in Singapore Medical Journal has found that vitamin D testing in New South Wales, Australia has increased 8-fold between 2001 and 2010. However, the results show that vitamin D levels are still low despite this increase in testing.
Globally, vitamin D testing is increasing. For example, in San Francisco, vitamin D testing increased 20-fold between 2006 and 2009. Ontario, Canada saw similar results with a 25-fold increase in testing between 2004 and 2010.
Recently, researchers conducted a study to determine if these same trends were occurring in New South Wales, Australia.
To do so, they analyzed patient records between 2001 and 2010 to determine how many people were getting their vitamin D levels tested and what the average vitamin D levels were in these years. Overall, the researchers collected 41,177 records over the study period.
They found that the number of vitamin D tests performed increased from 1,265 in 2001 to 10,499 in 2010.
“These increases suggest a greater awareness within the medical community regarding the importance of vitamin D status to effective healthcare,” the researchers stated.
The researchers also found that average vitamin D levels increased over the study period with the highest levels being reported in 2010.
Despite the overall increase in vitamin D tests and vitamin D levels, 33% of men and 40% of women were vitamin D deficient, with levels less than 20 ng/ml. The average vitamin D levels were 23.24 ng/ml and 20.44 ng/ml, respectively.
The researchers call for further research on vitamin D testing and vitamin D levels in at-risk subpopulations to help improve the effectiveness and delivery of healthcare services.