Meta-analysis of the effects of vitamin D on growth, development and body weight of children of different ages

Objective Due to the rapid growth and development of children, they were easily affected by various bad living habits and other factors, resulting in insufficient intake of one or more nutrients. Vitamin D drops could effectively promote children’s growth and development, but there was no comprehensive analysis of the effects of vitamin D drops on children’s growth and development. We want to systematically evaluate the effects of vitamin D drops on different ages of children’s growth and development by meta-analysis. Methods PubMed, EMBASE and Cochrane Library as search databases was collected from January 2000 to June 2023. The randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on the effects of vitamin D on children’s growth and development were searched, the literatures were screened, the data (height and weight) were extracted, and the risk of bias in the included studies was evaluated. The meta-analysis was conducted using Stata. 11 software. Results We included six studies, all randomized controlled trials of the effects of vitamin D supplementation on growth and development in children. The results showed that compared with the placebo group in the control group, vitamin D supplementation could significantly improve the level of serum 25(OH)D3 in children [n = 603, mean difference (MD) = 5.08 ng/ml, 95%CI (0.57,9.60), P = 0.03]. BMI, height, body weight and relative fat index had little effect, and there was no significant comparison between groups, which were [n = 1514, MD=-0,08 kg/m2, 95%CI (-0.47,0.30), P = 0.67], respectively. [n = 1426, MD = 0.18 cm, 95% CI (0.61, 0.97), P = 0.66). (n = 1426, MD = 0.10 kg, 95% CI (0.43, 0.22), P = 0.53) and (n = 1127, MD = 0.88%, 95% CI (26.24, 24.47), P = 0.95). Conclusion The study suggests that while vitamin D supplementation effectively boosts serum 25(OH)D3 levels in children, it has limited influence on other growth and development parameters such as BMI, height, body weight, and relative fat index.