Vitamin D is essential for bone mineralization, particularly in premature infants. For nearly 20 years, Quebec has offered a program of free vitamin D supplements via its public medication insurance plan Régie de l’Assurance Maladie du Québec (RAMQ).
Fatani et al BMC Pediatrics 2014, 14:291 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2431/14/291 RESEARCH ARTICLE Open Access Differential low uptake of free vitamin D supplements in preterm infants: the Quebec experience Tarah Fatani1, Atul K Sharma2, Hope A Weiler3, Odile Sheehy4, Anick Bérard4,5 and Celia Rodd2* Abstract Background: Vitamin D is essential for bone mineralization, particularly in premature infants For nearly 20 years, Quebec has offered a program of free vitamin D supplements via its public medication insurance plan Régie de l’Assurance Maladie du Québec (RAMQ) The objective of this study is to evaluate the number of preterm infants that obtained at least one bottle (50 doses) of vitamin D supplement through this program and to determine if uptake varied by gestational age Methods: This was a retrospective cohort study of preterm infants covered by RAMQ and born from 1998 to 2008; all infants had year of follow-up data regarding supplement use Data were extracted from the Quebec Pregnancy Cohort, a linked administrative database and were stratified by early (