A study of Vitamin D levels across different population from a tertiary care centre in Chennai

Abstract

Vitamin D plays a crucial role in calcium homeostasis and its deficiency is found to affect millions of people across the globe This study aimed to generate a dataset of Vitamin D 25OH D levels in different population and evaluate the association between Vitamin D deficiency and risk factors like age, gender BMI socioeconomic status sunlight exposure and diet The study was conducted among healthy adults pregnant premenopausal post menopausal women and patients with Diabetes in a tertiary care center in Chennai Vitamin D 25OH D levels were estimated in the plasma by chemiluminescence immunoassay and details on demography diet and sun exposure were obtained through specific questionnaires Statistical analysis of the data showed that Vitamin D deficiency is highly prevalent among the various subsets of population ranging from 47 percent in healthy adults to 62 percent among pregnant women 84 percent in postmenopausal women and 76 percent in diabetics Decreased sun exposure lower socioeconomic status and lack of adequate diet were found to be major risk factors associated with Vitamin D Deficiency in this study population To conclude, there is an urgent clinical and public health need to detect Vitamin D deficiency through screening in maternal and child health programs and master health checkups It is essential to implement interventions like food fortification and supplementation besides recommendations for optimal sun exposure and dietary intake to ensure adequate Vitamin D levels and its beneficial health outcomes The information generated can aid in calculating the burden of disease estimates meta-analysis and also as baseline data for future RCT or Cohort studies newlineKeywords: Vitamin D deficiency, prevalence, 25-hydroxyvitamin D, sun exposure, food fortification newline newline