Children Need Vitamin D to Heal Broken Bones, Study Says

September 27, 2024 | Source: Newsweek | by Hatty Willmoth

Low levels of vitamin D have been linked to a slower healing process in children with broken bones, according to research to be presented at a conference this weekend.

“Children need to be given well-balanced diets that include Vitamin D for overall health and to make sure when accidents do happen, they can heal appropriately,” said the study’s senior author, Dr. Jessica McQuerry of the University of Florida, in a statement.

McQuerry and her colleagues examined data about 166 patients, from babies to 17-year-olds, who had broken a bone between 2015 and 2022. They found that in 61.4 percent of cases, the children had low levels of vitamin D—and these children were likely to take significantly longer to heal.

For example, children with leg fractures that did not require surgery and who had low vitamin D levels took an average 20 extra days to heal clinically, and two months longer to show signs the fracture was disappearing in X-rays, compared with children with sufficient vitamin D.

For cases where surgery was needed, healing was found to take an extra month, on average, to heal clinically and nearly four months for fractures to fade on X-rays, the study found.