{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,22]],"date-time":"2025-10-22T22:24:38Z","timestamp":1761171878038,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":60,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"20","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,17]],"date-time":"2025-10-17T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1760659200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100003513","name":"University of Surrey","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100003513","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]},{"name":"BBSRC Institute Strategic Programme Food Microbiome and Health","award":["BB\/X011054\/1","BB\/X020029\/1"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["BB\/X011054\/1","BB\/X020029\/1"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Nutrients"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Objective: Studies show a high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in Greece and Cyprus despite an abundance of sunlight. We investigate the vitamin D status of Greeks and Cypriots living in the UK, where sunlight availability is more limited. Design: Cross-sectional study of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) using the UK Biobank cohort. Setting: The UK Biobank is a study of over 500K UK dwelling participants, with baseline measurements from 2006\u20132010. Participants: A sample of 325 Greek\/Cypriot and 4158 British\/Irish participants (aged 40\u201369 years). Results: The Greeks\/Cypriots had statistically significantly lower median serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) (40.3 nmol\/L) compared to the British\/Irish (47.6 nmol\/L). Eleven percent of British\/Irish and 22.8% of Greeks\/Cypriots had serum 25(OH)D &lt; 25 nmol\/L. Being exposed to summer sunlight for &gt;30 min\/d, as well as having a blood draw in summer or autumn, was statistically significantly associated with lower odds of 25 (OH))D &lt; 50 nmol\/L. Living in Scotland, having a winter blood draw, and not using a vitamin D-containing supplement were associated with increased odds of 25(OH)D &lt; 50 nmol\/L. Ethnicity was not a predictor of 25(OH)D &lt; 50 nmol\/L after confounder adjustment (Greek\/Cypriot OR = 1.18 (95% CI 0.85, 1.63; British\/Irish OR = 1.0). Conclusions: UK dwelling Greeks\/Cypriots have a higher prevalence of vitamin D deficiency (&lt;25 nmol\/L) compared to the British\/Irish population, but evidence from the literature is mixed as to whether they have a higher prevalence than when living in their country of origin. Public health interventions are required to improve 25(OH)D status in UK ethnic minority groups.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/nu17203267","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,17]],"date-time":"2025-10-17T13:07:22Z","timestamp":1760706442000},"page":"3267","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["25-Hydroxyvitamin D Status and Its Predictors in Greek and Cypriot Subsets of the UK Biobank Cohort"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"17","author":[{"given":"Francesca E.","family":"Kontea","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Discipline of Nutrition, Exercise, Chronobiology and Sleep, School of Biosciences, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Surrey, Guildford GU2 7XH, UK"},{"name":"Anderson\u2019s by Francesca Kontea (Private Nutrition & Dietetics Consultancy), Doriza 10A, 11525 Athens, Greece"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Susan A.","family":"Lanham-New","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Discipline of Nutrition, Exercise, Chronobiology and Sleep, School of Biosciences, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Surrey, Guildford GU2 7XH, UK"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7038-3161","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Andrea L.","family":"Darling","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Discipline of Nutrition, Exercise, Chronobiology and Sleep, School of Biosciences, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Surrey, Guildford GU2 7XH, UK"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,17]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1080S","DOI":"10.1093\/ajcn\/87.4.1080S","article-title":"Vitamin D deficiency: A worldwide problem with health consequences","volume":"87","author":"Holick","year":"2008","journal-title":"Am. 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