Introduction:

The presence of overweight and obesity increase the morbimortality of people in Latin America. Micronutrient deficiencies, such as calcium and vitamin D, are associated with an increased risk of obesity.

Objective:

To determine the relationship between vitamin D and calcium intake with risk factors for obesity in the Costa Rican urban population included in the ELANS Study.

Materials and methods:

For this analysis we used the 798 Costa Rican participants of the study (ELANS). The distribution of calcium and vitamin D intake was determined according to socioeconomic status, physical activity, and anthropometric measures. The Mann - Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis U tests were used, as well as linear and logistic regression models were performed.

Results:

Calcium and vitamin D intake was inadequate in more than 98% of the participants. Women, individuals with a lower socioeconomic level, low physical activity, younger age and those with excess weight and abdominal obesity presented lower consumption of calcium and vitamin D. The consumption of calcium and vitamin D was greater in the groups that have a lower BMI (p= 0.023 for calcium and p= 0.252 for vitamin D). The smaller the waist circumference, the greater the consumption of calcium and vitamin D (p= 0.002 for calcium and p= 0.008 for vitamin D). No association of the consumption of calcium and vitamin D was found in the regression models.

Conclusions:

Consumption of calcium and vitamin D is deficient in the Costa Rican urban population, and more prevalent among those with higher BMI.