Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many recorded cases of rickets occurred in each of the past four years; and what evidence they have regarding what is causing the increase in cases.

NHS England publishes data on hospital admissions in England for rickets. A count of finished admission episodes with a “primary” diagnosis and a “primary or secondary” diagnosis of rickets for the years 2018-19 to 2021-22 is shown in the table below:

Rickets is a condition which mostly affects children and is usually caused by prolonged vitamin D or calcium deficiency. Evidence on the relationship between vitamin D status or vitamin D supplementation and risk of nutritional rickets in children was assessed by the government’s Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition in its report ‘Vitamin D and Health’ (2016).

The National Diet and Nutrition Survey reported evidence of low vitamin D status, as indicated by low plasma 25-hydroxy vitamin D concentrations in blood, in all age groups surveyed between 2016 and 2019. 16% of adults aged 19 to 64 years, 13% of adults aged 65 years and over, 19% of children aged 11 to 18 years and 2% of children 4 to 10 years had low vitamin D status (taking account of seasonal variation). A low vitamin D status does not necessarily indicate clinical deficiency.

Copies of these reports has previously been placed in the Library but are also attached here.