Genetic and Environmental Predictors of Vitamin D

Principal Investigator: Corinne D. Engelman

Vitamin D deficiency is associated with many adverse health outcomes, including bone diseases, cancers, autoimmune diseases, infectious diseases, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease, making vitamin D an important health outcome of interest. Vitamin D status is determined by levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25[OH]D) in the blood. There are several well established predictors of 25[OH]D, however, two emerging factors are grossly understudied. The skin color of both sun exposed and unexposed skin, measured by reflectance spectrophotometry, appears to be an important factor influencing levels of 25[OH]D. Additionally, genetic studies of 25[OH]D are in their infancy. This study examines both of these emerging factors along with other more established predictors in 300 participants of the Survey of the Health of Wisconsin (SHOW).

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