Written question WQ87406
- Asked by
- Rhun ap IorwerthPlaid
- To be answered by
- Minister for Health and Social Services
- Tabled
- Due
- Answered
- Time to answer
- 7 days
Question
What is the Welsh Government's assessment of the latest evidence regarding the benefit of offering vitamin D supplements as a means of trying to prevent serious conditions?
Answer
Answered by Deputy Minister for Mental Health and Wellbeing
The Welsh Government advises everyone to consider taking a daily (10 micrograms) vitamin D supplement between October and early March to keep bones and muscles healthy. From about late March to the end of September, most people should be able to get all the vitamin D they as the body makes vitamin D from direct sunlight on the skin when outdoors, but during the winter we do not get enough vitamin D from sunlight.
Some people will not get enough vitamin D from sunlight because they have very little or no sunshine exposure. The Welsh Government recommends taking a daily supplement containing 10 micrograms of vitamin D throughout the year if you:
• are not often outdoors – for example, if you're frail or housebound
• are in an institution like a care home
• usually wear clothes that cover up most of your skin when outdoors
For those with dark skin – for example you have an African, African-Caribbean or south Asian background – they may also not get enough vitamin D from sunlight.
There have been reports about vitamin D reducing the risk of acute respiratory tract infections (ARTIs). NICE and the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN) published vitamin D papers in 2020:
SACN: Update of rapid review: Vitamin D and acute respiratory tract infections (publishing.service.gov.uk)
NICE: https://www.nice.org.uk/advice/es28/chapter/Key-messages
The SACN paper on vitamin D is a rapid review of the scientific evidence in relation to acute respiratory tract infections (ARTIs), following media reports and some academic publications suggesting vitamin D supplementation could reduce the risk of COVID-19.
Evidence considered suggests, overall, that there may be some benefit from daily, low-dose vitamin D supplementation in reducing risk of acute respiratory tract infections (ARTI). The size of any potential benefit of vitamin D in reducing ARTI risk may be small. SACN recommend that the reference nutrient intake for vitamin D remains unchanged.
This conclusion does not impact on existing government advice on vitamin D, and hence the Welsh Government’s main rationale for supplementation remains musculoskeletal health.