Prevalence of hypovitaminosis D and folate deficiency in healthy young female Austrian students in a health care profession.

Purpose: We performed a single-day cross-sectional study to assess the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency as well as folate status in healthy young female volunteers well educated with respect to health information.

Methods: We assessed dietary intake of vitamin D and calcium, serum concentrations of 25-OH-vitamin D(3), folate, red blood cell folate and other dietary, laboratory, and lifestyle parameters in 215 young healthy women (age 18-30 years) on a single day at the end of the winter months. Primary aim was to investigate the prevalence of hypovitaminosis D.

[When is a clinical study non-commercial?].

A non-commercial study is a research project not aiming at the protection of a commercial institution's interests. The classification of a clinical study as non-commercial or commercial makes sense and is important especially for clinical research teams, ethics committees and hospital owners because of relevant differences in the image and cost fields. The support of non-commercial studies by commercial institutions like pharmaceutical companies is permissible, unless it is tied to conditions impairing impartiality in respect of design, publication of study results or ownership of the assessed data.

Austrian Moderate Altitude Study 2000 (AMAS 2000). The effects of moderate altitude (1,700 m) on cardiovascular and metabolic variables in patients with metabolic syndrome.

We investigated the changes in the cardiovascular system [resting blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR), measured by means of a 24-h ambulatory BP and a holter-electrocardiogram (ECG)], glycemic parameters, and lipid metabolism of subjects suffering from metabolic syndrome during a 3-week sojourn at 1,700 m in the Austrian Alps. A total of 22 male subjects with metabolic syndrome were selected. Baseline investigations were performed at Innsbruck (500 m above sea level).