App to help meet vitamin D requirements

Toronto: Are you taking sufficient amount of vitamin D - essential for bone health and immunity - on a daily basis? If you don't know, this app will help you find out.

The intake of dietary vitamin D in adults (aged 19-50 years) should be 600 IU/d and below 1000 IU/d, as recommended by the Canadian Cancer Society for most adults.

Tracking intake is, therefore, important in helping inform patients about potential deficiencies.

"The app represents a valuable tool physicians or dieticians could use in clinical counselling to help patients increase their intake of vitamin D or calcium," said lead author Samantha Goodman from the University of Guelph, Canada.

"This app may be a useful tool for tracking personal intake," Goodman added.

The researchers examined use of the Vitamin D Calculator app by enrolling 25 men and 25 women between 18 and 25 years of age.

Before beginning the study, participants were instructed on how to use the app and then asked to use the app to record their intake of vitamin D and calcium-containing food and beverages, as well as their exposure to sunlight on three recording days.

The day after the three-day tracking period was completed, participants orally recalled their intake for research assistants.

Mean vitamin D and calcium intake estimated by the app were significantly positively correlated and not significantly different from the recalls, validating use of the app for tracking dietary intake.

The study was published in Journal of Nutrition Education and Behaviour.