Population vitamin D supplementation in UK adults: too much of nothing?

Public Health England’s guidance was derived from findings of 2016 SACN's report on Vitamin D and Health. This review discusses findings of that report, reliability of the findings and whether newer research means that these findings should be revisited.

SPS commentary:

Review concludes:

  • Current systematic reviews of RCTs do not provide evidence that vitamin D supplementation reduces CVD, cancer or premature mortality, as has been suggested by observational studies.
  • Recent research has been unable to show that vitamin D supplementation is effective in preventing falls or fractures, so it appears that supplementation is unnecessary for most people to protect musculoskeletal health, except people from high risk populations with no sunlight exposure at high risk of rickets and osteomalacia.
  • Adult populations in UK whose skin has little or no exposure to the sun or people who always cover their skin when outside may be at higher risk, but there is no good evidence that universal supplementation of these groups is beneficial for their health.

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