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Staying Healthy
Advisory group: Too soon to recommend routine vitamin D screening
- By Kelly Bilodeau, Executive Editor, Harvard Women's Health Watch
Research we're watching
Vitamin D plays an important role in the body, helping it to absorb bone-building calcium and supporting many of the body’s other functions. But should adults be routinely screened for vitamin D deficiency if they don’t have symptoms or they are not at higher-than-average risk of vitamin D deficiency? The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recently reconsidered the benefits and harms of routine screening. The group’s consensus view was that there’s still not enough evidence that routine vitamin D blood testing leads to better health outcomes. The task force came to this conclusion during an update of its 2014 recommendation.
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