Abstract
Optimal vitamin D supplementation is necessary for the normal course of growth and develop-ment processes, bone formation, prevention of stress fractures, improvement of recovery after injuries and physical exertion in young athletes. There is a high prevalence of vitamin D deficien-cy in children and adolescents in Russia currently. The number of studies on the prevalence of vitamin D metabolic disorders in young athletes is insufficient. The purpose of this research was to assess the vitamin D availability in young athletes. Methods used: cross-sectional, single-center study included young athletes from 24 kinds of sports who underwent medical examination in March to July, 2022. Serum 25-hydroxycalciferol (25(OH)D3) was measured in all athletes using the chemiluminescence analysis. Results: 527 young athletes (254 (48.2%) boys/273 (51.8%) girls) aged 10 to 17 years and 11 months old (average 15.2 [14.2; 16.5] y/o) were examined. Vit-amin D deficiency (25(OH)D3 <20 ng/ml) was detected in 226 (42.9%) athletes, of which severe deficiency (25(OH)D3 <10 ng/ml) was in 5 (2%). Vitamin D insufficiency was diagnosed in 219 (41.6%), and the optimal level of 25(OH)D3 (>30 ng/ml) was detected only in 82 (15.5%). There were no statistically significant gender differences in the frequency of occurrence of vitamin D insufficiency (p=0.561) and deficiency (p=0.673). Conclusion: extremely low vitamin D availa-bility in young athletes was revealed. Conducting further research on the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency and ways to correct it in young athletes is necessary to start working on recommended optimizing and preventive and therapeutic approaches to correcting of the vitamin D levels in high-performance youth sports.
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