Prevalence of Vitamin D Deficiency in Children With Cerebral Palsy: A Meta-Analysis.

Background: Vitamin D deficiency stands out as a significant contributor to reduced bone mineral density in children diagnosed with cerebral palsy (CP). The objective of the meta-analysis was to estimate the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in children with CP.

Methods: This meta-analysis adhered to Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) 2020 guide. For children with CP aged between zero and 18 years with vitamin D deficiency, relevant articles were retrieved from PubMed, Scopus, ScienceDirect, and Cochrane. Following keywords were used: "cerebral palsy," "children," "childhood," "vitamin D," "vitamin D deficiency," "prevalence," and "frequency." Newcastle-Ottawa Scale was used to assess methodologic quality. Meta-analysis was performed using Stata 13.0.

Results: In total, seven articles were considered suitable for inclusion in the meta-analysis of 411 articles initially identified. These studies involved a total of 430 children diagnosed with CP, ranging in age from zero to 18 years. Among the seven studies, two followed a cross-sectional approach, whereas the remaining five utilized a case-control design. Six of these studies were determined to have a low risk of bias, whereas one exhibited a moderate risk of bias. The combined prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in children with CP was determined to be 42.18% (95% confidence interval = 32.90% to 51.73%, I = 74.41%, and P < 0.001).

Conclusions: In conclusion, this meta-analysis reveals evidence of high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in children with CP. This finding underscores the importance of addressing nutritional factors in the management of CP among pediatric populations.