U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion

Increase vitamin D consumption by people aged 2 years and over — NWS‑15 Data Methodology and Measurement

On this page:  About the National Data  |  Methodology  |  History

About the National Data

Data

Data Source:  National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), CDC/NCHS

Baseline: 15.7 micrograms (µg) of vitamin D from food and dietary supplements was the mean total daily intake by persons aged 2 years and over in 2013-16

Target: 18.8 µg

Numerator
Sum of daily intake of vitamin D (in µg) among persons aged 2 years and over.
Denominator
Number of persons aged 2 years and over.
Target-setting method
Percent improvement
Target-setting method details
20 percent improvement from the baseline.
Target-setting method justification
Trend data were not available for this objective. A 20 percent improvement from the baseline was used to calculate a target. This method was used because of the historical trend data for vitamin D intake from food and dietary supplements from the United States Department of Agriculture's (USDA) What We Eat In America. Vitamin D is a nutrient of public health concern and a mandatory nutrient listed on most Nutrition Facts labels of packaged foods. Consumers will become aware of the vitamin D content of packaged foods and their intake is likely to increase.

Methodology

Methodology notes

To determine total vitamin D intake, several sources of vitamin D were considered, including foods and dietary supplements. The NHANES food consumption data included the collection of 1 day of dietary data for all respondents through in-person 24-hour recalls and collection of a 2nd-day 24-hour recall by telephone. Both dietary recalls are obtained by trained dietary interviewers using USDA's Automated Multiple Pass Method (AMPM). For these analyses, vitamin D intake from only the first 24-hour recall will be used. Each respondent was asked to recall the kinds and amounts of foods and beverages consumed at home and away from home during the previous day (midnight to midnight). Amounts of foods and beverages reported in household measures were then converted to gram amounts, and vitamin D intake from foods and beverages was estimated with the use of food composition files.

Breast-feeding children were excluded from the analysis.

History

Revision History
Revised. 

In 2022, the baseline was revised from 15.8 to 15.7 due to a change in participant exclusion criteria for consistency with the analyses for food and nutrient intake objectives that were retained from HP2020. The target was revised from 19.0 to 18.8 using the original target setting method.