PhD defence: Vitamin D, immune defence, and cardiometabolic health in children

Hanne Hauger

PhD thesis

Low vitamin D status is often seen during winter in children living in northern latitudes. However, we lack knowledge on whether vitamin D status affects children's immune defence against respiratory infections and their cardiometabolic health.

This Phd thesis investigates effects of vitamin D supplementation during winter on immune function measured as various defence proteins and on cardiometabolic health measured as blod pressure, insulin and blood cholesterol, in healthy 4-8 year-old Danish children. Moreover, the thesis provides a systematic review of studies conducted in overweight and normal weight children and adolescents, which have investigated effects of vitamin D supplementation on blood pressure, insulin and blood cholesterol.

The results show that vitamin D supplementation during winter had limited effects on various immune defence proteins and no effects on various cardiometabolic outomes in healthy 4-8 year-old Danish children. Moreover, it shows that most studies, which have investigated cardiometabolic effects of vitamin D supplementation in children and adolescents also found no beneficial effects.

2018, 154 pages.

Time

30 October 2018, 13:00

Place

A1-05.01, Dyrlægevej 100, Frederiksberg

Opponents 

Professor Lotte Lauritzen (chair), Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

Associate Professor Christine Dalgård, Environmental Medicine, University of Southern Denmark, Denmark.

Professor Parveen Yaqoob, School of Chemistry, Food & Pharmacy, University of Reading, UK.

Supervisor

Associate Professor Camilla Trab Damsgaard, Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

Co-supervisors

Professor Christian Mølgaard, Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

Associate Professor Christian Ritz, Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

Professor Hanne Frøkiær, Department of Veterinary Disease Biology, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.