Vitamin D deficiency causes rickets in an urban informal settlement in Kenya and is associated with malnutrition.

ABSTRACT: The commonest cause of rickets worldwide is vitamin D deficiency, but studies from sub-Saharan Africa describe an endemic vitamin D-independent form that responds to dietary calcium enrichment. The extent to which calcium-deficiency rickets is the dominant form across sub-Saharan Africa and in other low-latitude areas is unknown. We aimed to characterise the clinical and biochemical features of young children with rickets in a densely populated urban informal settlement in Kenya. Because malnutrition may mask the clinical features of rickets, we also looked for biochemical indices of risk in children with varying degrees of acute malnutrition. Twenty one children with rickets, aged 3 to 24 months, were identified on the basis of clinical and radiologic features, along with 22 community con

SUBMITTER: Jones KDJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5763407 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature