Childhood nutritional rickets presenting to secondary care.
Research type
Research Study
Full title
British Paediatric Surveillance study of nutritional rickets presenting to secondary care in children aged under 16 years in the UK and the Republic of Ireland.
IRAS ID
144785
Contact name
Ricahrd Lynn
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 5 months, days
Research summary
Rickets is unique to growing children and adolescents and occurs when growing bones do not develop adequately. As a result the child’s bones soften which can lead to distressing short and long term consequences. These include; pain, delayed walking, deformed limbs in need of surgical correction, or difficulty with child bearing. The disease can be recognised in children and adolescents by specific clinical signs and/or bone x-rays.
Rickets is the commonest childhood complication of vitamin D deficiency (VDD) and is caused by a lack of dietary calcium or problems with the supply or use of vitamin D inside the body. Rickets can also be caused by the lack of phosphate, from the loss of kidneys or from genetic problems.
Currently there is little data on the number of rickets cases and the last national UK survey of rickets was conducted in 1945. The limited data that is available to date shows that VDD in the UK is steadily increasing. The knowledge of population based data will allow us to follow trends of the disease in different populations over time. The data will also help to provide evidence for the supplementation of vitamin D.
As a disease that can be identified by specific clinical and radiological signs, the number of new cases (incidence) and treatment of rickets in the UK can be monitored and evaluated. In the recent Chief Medical Officer’s (CMO) report 2012, Dame Sally Davies recommends investment to be made into universal and targeted vitamin schemes and whether the approaches are cost effective. This project aims to estimate the incidence of nutritional rickets presenting to secondary care and to identify and describe the presentation, management and known risk factors.REC name
London - West London & GTAC Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
14/LO/2221
Date of REC Opinion
15 Jan 2015
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion