TasD Study: Vitamin D Status in Healthy Tasmanians & Recommendations for Public Health

This study focuses on five Tasmanian studies involving healthy participants. The studies cover the full life span, including schoolchildren, teenagers and young, middle-aged and older adults. Ambient UV data has become available for the first time and this is analysed to describe the seasonal patterns in ambient UVR in Hobart. The study aims to:

1. Describe the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in each population for different seasons
2. Describe the sun exposure behaviour in each population
3. Examine for each population the factors that are associated with vitamin D levels. These could include sun exposure, skin type, body mass index, physical activity, age, sex and dietary intake of vitamin D
4. Describe the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency for different levels of the key factors that are associated with vitamin D levels
5. Provide recommendation in relation to public health actions and public health messages to the general public and/or specific at risk groups in Tasmania

This project is a participant based study.

Related Diseases

• Arthritis
• Vitamin D Deficiency

Staff

Team Members

• Associate Professor Leigh Blizzard (Biostatistician)
• Dr Dawn Aitken (PhD Student)

Local Collaborators

• Professor Graeme Jones (Professorial Research Fellow)