A systematic review and meta

Vitamin D deficiency among adolescents is an emerging public health priority as adolescence marks a period of rapid growth and the onset of the reproductive phase. However, lack of national prevalence data and intervention strategies is of public health concern. The objective of this study was to determine the pooled prevalence of vitamin D deficiency among adolescent girls in selected Indian states. A systematic literature review was performed using three different search engines. The searches yielded nine eligible articles. Study quality was assessed for 10 different criteria. Meta-analysis was performed to estimate pooled prevalence of vitamin D deficiency among adolescent girls and to assess the heterogeneity among selected studies. A sample of n=1352 was used to study prevalence among adolescent girls. The random effects combined estimate for overall prevalence was 25.70% (95% CI 3.89–2137.9). High heterogeneity (tau2=1.71, I2=100%) was observed and seven out of nine studies showed low to moderate risk and two showed high risk of bias. The test for overall effect was observed to be Z=0.77 (p=0.44). High prevalence of vitamin D deficiency among adolescent girls identifies the need to introduce screening of adolescents and introduce proven public-health interventions such as fortification of foods to address deficiency