1. ¹Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
2. ²Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
3. ³CARE Program, Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Correspondence: Dr DE Roth, Program in Human Nutrition, Department of International Health, The Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, 615 North Wolfe Street, Room W2041, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA. E-mail: droth@jhsph.edu

Received 5 August 2007; Accepted 20 September 2007; Published online 31 October 2007.

Abstract

The association between vitamin D status and susceptibility to acute lower respiratory tract infection (ALRI) was studied in young Canadian children. Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) concentrations were measured in patients aged 1–25 months admitted to hospital with uncomplicated ALRI (primarily viral bronchiolitis) as well as in healthy, similarly aged patients without a history of hospitalization for ALRI (controls). Serum 25(OH)D concentrations were similar among cases and controls (77.0 versus 77.2 nmol l^-1; P=0.960), and there was no case–control difference in the prevalence of vitamin D insufficiency using two thresholds (<40 nmol l^-1: 4.7 versus 1.5%, P=0.365; <80 nmol l^-1: 51.6 versus 56.9%, P=0.598). Vitamin D status was not associated with the risk of hospitalization for ALRI in this population.