An Investigation of Diabetes Mellitus and Vitamin D Deficiency in Patients Presented to Internal Medicine Outpatient Clinic

Abstract

Introduction: Vitamin D deficiency plays a role also in the occurrence of autoimmune diseases, including heart disease, cancer, inflammatory bowel diseases, diabetes, and rheumatological diseases. In addition, vitamin B12 deficiency, one of the autoimmune diseases, can also be seen in cases of Vitamin D deficiency. Furthermore, Vitamin D is also associated with insulin secretion and increased insulin sensitivity in target cells, and relevant studies reported Vitamin D deficiency at the initial stage of diabetes mellitus (DM). Accordingly, the present study aimed to investigate the relationship between Vitamin D, DM, Vitamin B12, and ferritin in patients presented to the internal medicine outpatient clinic. Materials and Methods: The data from adults aged 18 years and over, who presented to the Internal Medicine Outpatient Clinic of the Mersin City Training and Research Hospital between 01 June 2021 and 31 December 2021 were retrospectively investigated. Results: 476 (95.2%) patients had vitamin D levels below 30 ng/ml, 20 (4.0%) had vitamin B12 levels below 200 pg/ml, and 319 (63.8%) patients had ferritin levels below 20 ng/ml. There was a significant decrease in ferritin in female gender (p