Rural Rickets: Vitamin D Deficiency in a Post‐Medieval Farming Community from the Netherlands

A high prevalence of rickets, typically associated with urban environments, was identified in a 17th-century rural farming community in the Netherlands, challenging the notion that such conditions were limited to industrialized cities. The study examined 95 individuals aged from 32 weeks in utero to 15 years from the Middenbeemster cemetery, using ten diagnostic features for rickets. Nine individuals (9.5%) exhibited evidence of the condition, with the highest age-specific prevalence (30.4%) observed in two and three-year-olds. Cultural practices such as prolonged swaddling, occlusive clothing, and indoor confinement, along with dietary factors including poor weaning foods and malnutrition, are suggested to have contributed to this unexpected outbreak. The findings underscore the impact of maladaptive cultural behaviors on public health, even in populations seemingly at low risk due to abundant sunlight.

Veselka, B., Hoogland, M. L. P., & Waters‐Rist, A. L. (2013). Rural Rickets: Vitamin D Deficiency in a Post‐Medieval Farming Community from the Netherlands. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, 25(5), 665–675. Portico. https://doi.org/10.1002/oa.2329