Association of vitamin D levels with simple febrile seizures in under five children: a case control study

Abstract

Background: There is increasing concern that vitamin D deficiency may play etiological role in Febrile seizures. Few studies have reported vitamin D deficiency in children with recurrent febrile seizures and hypocalcemia seizures. The objective of this study is to explore vitamin D status in children aged 6 months to 5 years with first episode of febrile seizure and to find the association between vitamin D levels and febrile seizure.Methods: A hospital-based case control study was conducted in sub district hospital, Katra over a period of three years. Cases were children of age group 6 months to 5 years presenting with first episode of simple febrile seizure to the casualty or OPD. For each case, a control was selected with similar age group and same sex who came for short duration fever (<2 days) but without seizures. A 5ml of blood sample for measurement of 25 hydroxy vitamin D was taken from the peripheral vein of each participant by trained laboratory technician. In order to categorise various degrees of vitamin D deficiency, Indian Academy of paediatrics criteria was used. Results were presented in the form of percentages and Odds ratio was calculated as measure of association.Results: A total of 75 cases and 75 controls were included in the study. Cases and controls were comparable as per baseline characteristics. Strong and significant (p<0.01) association of febrile seizures with vit D levels was observed.Conclusions: There was a high prevalence of vitamin D insufficiency among cases of simple febrile seizure.