Abstract
People with neurodevelopmental disorders and intellectual disabilities have much greater health care needs. Mainly staying indoors, such people generally have low 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) concentrations. The Vitamin D Task Force of the American Academy of Developmental Medicine and Dentistry (AADMD) reviewed the evidence of 25(OH)D concentrations that benefit the health of persons with developmental disabilities. Maintaining recommended optimal serum 25(OH)D concentrations year long will benefit skeletal development in infants, children, and adolescents, and benefit musculoskeletal health and neuromuscular coordination in adult patients, and decrease risk of falls. Maintaining optimal concentrations decreases risks and severities of autoimmune diseases, cardiovascular disease, many types of cancer, dementia, types 1 and 2 diabetes mellitus, and respiratory tract infections. Other benefits include improved dental and oral health and improved physical performance. The Task Force recommends that 25(OH)D concentrations for optimal health to be in the range of 75 to 125 nmol/L, which can be achieved using between 800 and 4000 IU/day vitamin D3 and sensible exposure to solar UVB radiation. The paper also discusses the potential risks of higher 25(OH)D concentrations, the evidence from and limitations of randomized controlled trials, and the recommendations by various groups and agencies.
Highlights
People with neurodevelopmental disorders and intellectual developmental disabilities (IDD), or medically complex developmental disabilities (MCDD), require much greater health care than other patient populations
Evidence suggests that vitamin D offers several health benefits, including reduced risk of falls and fractures, several types of cancer, cardiovascular disease, cognitive decline, dementia, diabetes mellitus, respiratory and other types of infections, and many other conditions and diseases [11]
The evidence includes that vitamin D plays roles in protecting the central nervous system, regulating calcium homeostasis, attenuating oxidative stress, and enhancing immune response [71].Another recent paper suggested that vitamin D supplements could be used in therapy for those with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) [72]
Summary
People with neurodevelopmental disorders and intellectual developmental disabilities (IDD), or medically complex developmental disabilities (MCDD), require much greater health care than other patient populations. People with MCDD are prone to having low blood concentrations of 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) for several reasons, including generally staying indoors or excessive use of sunscreens, propensity to obesity, and taking various medications [3]. These people have higher rates of osteopenia and osteoporosis [4], chronic diseases, [5,6,7,8], respiratory infections [9], and poorer oral health [10] than community-dwelling individuals. Since those in the MCDD community are living longer [12], the task force considered the effects of vitamin D for all age groups
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