The Effect of Vitamin D Deficiency on Neurobehavioral Outcomes and Approaches in Children: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Neurobehavioral disorders are common amongst children around the world, especially in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Almost 81 million children under the age of five in these countries have developmental, cognitive, emotional, and social disorders. Vitamin D may affect neurobehavioral outcomes in children through its role in brain development. The present study is a systematic review conducted by searching the databases of Elsevier, PubMed, Springer, Wiley and with the keywords Childhood, Vitamin D, Cognitive function and neurobehavioral outcomes, and studies between 2012 -2020 were reviewed. Out of a total of 968 articles, 20 articles were finally selected based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria for further review, the results of which showed a relation amongst serum levels of vitamin D and neurobehavioral outcomes in children, however, no relation was observed in some articles. More extensive research is needed to further understand the role of vitamin D, as well as the relationamong vitamin D and other factors involved in neurobehavioral approaches and disorders.