Awareness of Vitamin D among General Population

Abstract

Objective: To assess awareness about Vitamin D in general population. Study design: Cross sectional study Place and duration of study: The Study was conducted at the Out-Patient Department of Combined Military Hospital, Lahore from January 2016-July 2016. Methods: Two hundred people from Combined Military Hospital Out-Patient of different departments Medicine, Surgery, ophthalmology and ENT) participated in the study. The questionnaire consisted of demographic information, awareness of Vitamin D, its sources, its beneficial effects, how Vitamin D effects different diseases. Data was analyzed by SPSS version 20. Chi-square test of significance was used to find the significance of association between independent variables with response variables. P-value<0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: Results from our research have shown that 78% of the participants had heard of Vitamin D and 60% of participants knew about its sources. Only 29% of people knew about the most beneficial exposure time for Vitamin D. The association of age and education status with knowledge of the source of Vitamin D was significant (p=0.001). The association between knowledge about Vitamin D and manifestation of rickets as its deficiency was also significant (p=0.002). However no statistically significant association was found between gender and knowledge about sources of Vitamin D. Conclusion: Results acquired have shown that although most of the people knew about Vitamin D and its sources like, still a significant proportion were unaware about it and its various sources like egg, fish oil and grains. Also, majority did not know about optimum sunlight exposure time for Vitamin D. Considering the importance of Vitamin D for human body, more awareness through health education is needed. Vitamin D deficiency is cause of many debilitating conditions which can be prevented simply by spreading awareness among people.