Low vitamin D intake is associated with increase in cardiovascular risk factors in obese adolescents

This study aimed to investigate the effect of vitamin D on cardiovascular risk in obese adolescents. Thirty (16 females/14 males) post-puberty obese adolescents (15-19 years) were involved and measurements of inflammatory biomarkers, body composition, visceral fat, and vitamin D (serum and intake) were performed. The adolescents were submitted to a long-term interdisciplinary therapy with physical exercise, nutritional, psychological, and clinical interventions. Negative correlations between vitamin D intake with plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) (r=-0.69; p=0.01) and vascular cell adhesion molecule (VCAM-1) (r=-0.82; p=0.001) were found in the population analyzed. Improvement in PAI-1, VCAM-1, body composition, and visceral fat, were observed. We showed that low vitamin D intake is associated with an increase in the cardiovascular risk factors in obese adolescents.