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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Nutr.
Sec. Nutritional Epidemiology
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnut.2025.1541427
This article is part of the Research Topic The First 1000 Days: Window of Opportunity for Child Health and Development View all 13 articles

The necessity of gestational vitamin D supplementation depends on ambient temperature: concern for infant vitamin D status

Provisionally accepted
Wanjun Yin Wanjun Yin 1Lei Zhang Lei Zhang 2Peng Zhu Peng Zhu 2*
  • 1 Anhui University of Science and Technology, Huainan, Anhui, China
  • 2 Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background Given the ease of access to ambient temperature, it may be a more practical guide for vitamin D supplementation than the UVB index. However, the association of gestational temperature with newborn vitamin D levels remains unclear. Our study aims to explore this association and the necessity of maternal vitamin D supplementation when ambient temperature less than a specific value.Based on a birth cohort study, we measured cord blood concentrations of 25(OH)D in 1419 neonate from January to September 2008 in Hefei, a new first-tier city in China. Daily mean temperature of Hefei was provided by the China Meteorological Data Sharing Service System.The individual information on sociodemographic characteristics, perinatal health status, lifestyle and birth outcomes were prospectively collected.The best fitted relationship was observed in the regression model using a quadratic function to describe the association between ambient temperature of the eighth gestational month (29-32 gestational weeks) and cord blood 25(OH)D concentrations (R 2 = 0.358, P < 0.001).Ambient temperature of 10C and 24.5C were linked to the cutoff of vitamin D inadequacy (< 50 nmol/L) and deficiency (< 30 nmol/L) in cord blood, respectively. For maternal exposure to ambient temperature of ≥ 24.5  C in the eighth gestational month, vitamin D supplementation during pregnancy failed to significantly enhance neonatal vitamin D concentrations. In contrast, for maternal exposure to ambient temperature of < 10C, maternal vitamin D supplementation was significantly associated with elevated 25(OH)D concentrations in cord blood.Conclusions Gestational ambient temperature may be an ideal predictor of infant vitamin D status screening. Maternal exposure to the ambient temperature of less than 10C is a critical index in the eighth gestational month, which maybe determine the onset of vitamin D supplementation.

    Keywords: Pregnant Women, vitamin D supplementation., vitamin D., ambient temperature, neonate.

    Received: 07 Dec 2024; Accepted: 13 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Yin, Zhang and Zhu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Peng Zhu, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China

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