Peer-reviewed article
Vitamin K2 deficiency and its association with short stature in children: A cross-sectional study.
Li-Li Chen, Ke-Wen Xu, Rui-Xue Cao, Guang-Hui Shen, Jin-Rong Liu et al. ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study examined whether vitamin K2 deficiency is linked to short stature in children. Researchers compared vitamin K2 levels in 235 children with short stature and 454 children of average height at a Chinese hospital between 2021 and 2022. Children with short stature had lower vitamin K2 levels and higher rates of deficiency. The study found that vitamin K2 deficiency was an independent risk factor for short stature.
Key points
- Children with short stature had significantly lower serum vitamin K2 levels than children with average height (P = 0.019)
- Vitamin K2 deficiency was found to be an independent risk factor for short stature (OR = 1.535, 95% CI = 1.061-2.222, P = 0.023)
- The prevalence of vitamin K2 deficiency was significantly higher in the short stature group (P = 0.011)
- An inverse correlation was observed between serum vitamin K2 levels and age in children aged 2 to 15 years (ρ = -0.133, P < 0.001)
- The study involved 235 children with short stature and 454 healthy controls from a single hospital in Wenzhou, China
Limitations
This is a cross-sectional study which can only show association, not causation; it was conducted at a single hospital in China, so findings may not be generalizable to other populations or settings.
Abstract
OBJECTIVES: This study examines the relationship between vitamin K2 (VK2) status and the occurrence of short stature in children. METHODS: A cross-sectional analysis was conducted between January 2021 and August 2022, involving 235 children with a clinical diagnosis of short stature at the Second Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University (short stature group) and 454 children with average height (±1 SD) from the same period (healthy group). Serum VK2 levels were compared between the two groups. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to identify factors associated with short stature, and spearman correlation analysis was used to examine the relationship between VK2 status and age. RESULTS: Children in the short stature group exhibited lower VK2 levels (P = 0.019) and a significantly higher prevalence of VK2 deficiency (P = 0.011) compared to the healthy group. VK2 deficiency was identified as an independent risk factor for short stature (OR = 1.535, 95% CI = 1.061-2.222, P = 0.023) through multivariate logistic regression analysis. Furthermore, an inverse correlation was observed between serum VK2 levels and age in children aged 2 to 15 years (ρ = -0.133, P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: VK2 deficiency may be associated with an increased risk of short stature in children.