Identification and Treatment of Hypovitaminosis-D among in-patients setting of Cavan General Hospital, Ireland and its implication on different health perspectives and quality of life

Abstract

Aim: People who are at risk of developing vitamin D deficiency are not usually tested for vitamin D when present to hospital. The aim of this study was to explore the incidence of Hypovitaminosis-D and its treatment in admitted patient category of Cavan General Hospital, Ireland. Methods: This is a cross sectional study which was conducted randomly among admitted patients in medicine department at CGH from August 2016 to August 2017. A random data was collected from total of 100 patients. All blood samples were stored and labeled properly in the CGH Hematology lab till further blood profile analyzed. Data was statistically analyzed through using DSAASTAT (Onofri, Italy). Results: Selected population of 100 patients expressed almost equal numbers in gender distribution including males and females at 51% and 49% respectively. The data was analyzed on the basis of age and gender distribution. Selected Population was divided in 3 age groups. There were 9 patients under the age-group of 30-50 years, 47 of 51-80 years and 44 of >80 years age-group. Among these patients, males comprised of 57% with hypovitaminosis D (vitamin D deficiency) and females were 43% respectively. Out of these 100 patients, 33 people were recorded with normal vitamin D level and 67 patients found to have low vitamin D level. These 67 patients with low vitamin D levels were selected for treatment with vitamin D as per guidelines. Out of these 67 patients, unfortunately 3 people died, 11 lost their follow up, so remaining 53 patients participated in receiving treatments. Out of those 53 patients with low vitamin D, there were 29 males and 24 females. After receiving treatment with vitamin D, 40 people ± 0.0001 recovered, showing vitamin D level >30 nmol/L, 9 patients ± 0.0002 found mildly deficient with vitamin D levels between 21-30 nmol/L and 4 patients ± 0.0003 were severely deficient with levels of <10 nmol/L. All those people with severe deficiency were more than 80 years-of-age and also were not sure about their compliance with medications. The probability value was p ≤ 0.05. Conclusion: This study was conducted to determine hypovitaminosis D (Vitamin D deficiency) in population, admitted to hospital with previous comorbid medical conditions which are prone to develop its deficiency. This study showed that 67% population has hypovitaminosis D with almost equal percentage in both genders. After receiving treatments with Vitamin D replacement, almost majority (>90%) showed recovery of vitamin D levels with very small number (8%) showed persistent severely low levels.