A high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency has been reported in non-Western immigrants in Norway. Our objective was to test whether written information about how to improve vitamin D status could improve the vitamin D status in immigrants mothers attending child health clinics. In this cluster randomized controlled trial in eight child health clinics in Oslo, mothers aged 18-43 years with Pakistani, Turkish, or Somali background were included when their infants were 6 weeks old. The public health nurses gave the intervention group a brochure with information on how to improve vitamin D status, written in their native language. They were compared with a control group receiving usual care, consisting of oral information only. The principal outcome measure was increase in serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [s-25(OH) D] in mothers 7 weeks later. Forty-four mothers completed the study. Mean baseline s-25(OH) D was 29.1 (14.8) nmol l-1 in the intervention and 19.4 (9.2) in the control group. There was no significant increase in s-25(OH) D from baseline to follow-up in the intervention [6.3 (95%CI: -1.9, 14.4) nmol l-1)] or in the control group [2.9 (95% CI [confidence interval]: -1.2, 7.0) nmol l-1]. When adjusting for baseline s-25(OH) D concentration the mean difference in increase between the intervention and control group was 1.4 (95% CI: -18.7, 21.4) nmol l-1 (P = 0.87). Adjustment for ethnicity, season and mother's educational background did not alter the results. In sum, providing immigrant mothers with written information about how to improve their vitamin D status did not have an effect on the mothers' vitamin D status. © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Immigrant mothers Vitamin D Randomized controlled trial Nutrition education Maternal nutrition Lactation

patient care Pakistan czechoslovakia immigrant nurse Norway vitamin blood level calcifediol follow up human controlled study Turkey (republic) priority journal nutritional assessment language Patient Education as Topic cluster analysis Young Adult Humans Adolescent 25 hydroxyvitamin D male Emigrants and Immigrants female Infant Mothers clinical article Nutritional Sciences medical information Article vitamin D deficiency adult Somalia Turkey Maternal-Child Health Centers outcome assessment ethnicity health center body mass nutritional status