Age-dependent vitamin D status and vertebral condition of white women living in Curaçao (The Netherlands Antilles) as compared with their counterparts in The Netherlands.

Plasma vitamin D metabolites and parathyroid hormone concentrations of two groups of white women, aged 26-46 and 63-83 y, in Curaçao were studied to evaluate the effect of yearlong abundant sunlight on frequency of vertebral compression fractures in elderly women. 25-Hydroxyvitamin D of the younger group (median, 116 nmol/L) was higher than that of the older group (75 nmol/L). Both groups had higher 25-hydroxyvitamin D compared with approximately age-matched counterparts in The Netherlands during autumn and winter (50 and 25 nmol/L, respectively). Similar differences were found for 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D, although to a lesser extent. Parathyroid hormone concentrations of older women in Curaçao (4.3 pmol/L) were higher than those of the younger women (2.3 pmol/L). Roentgenographic analyses of the spines of the older women did not show vertebral compression fractures commonly encountered in women living at higher latitudes. Uninterrupted high plasma concentrations of vitamin D metabolites may reduce vertebral compression fractures in postmenopausal white women.