Abstract
BackgroundAccumulating evidence indicates that vitamin D deficiency has been increased globally over the last two decades. However, the majority of these studies are concerned with cities and there is scant information regarding the prevalence of vitamin D in rural areas. The main aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency and its associated risk factors among the rural population in Bushehr province which shares the longest border with the Persian Gulf.MethodsThe rural inhabitants of more than 25 years old from three mountainous, plain, and seashore areas of Bushehr province were selected through a stratified multi-cluster random sampling method. After obtaining the participants’ demographic and anthropometric data and their past medical history, serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] was measured using ELISA.ResultsA total of 1806 (means ±SD, 46± 14years old) rural subjects (35 % males and 65 % females) participated in this study. The prevalence of vitamin D deficiency, insufficiency, and sufficiency were 28 %, 50 %, and 22 %, respectively. The deficiency of vitamin D in women was higher than in men (OR=1.27, 95 % CI: 1.05 to 1.54, P=0.04). There was a positive significant correlation between age and serum vitamin D levels. Men with vitamin D deficiency had higher BMI (P=0.008); this association was not observed among women (P=0.7). There was no significant difference between the food item’s consumption frequencies, and vitamin D status (P>0.05). The mountainous, and plain areas had the highest and lowest vitamin D levels, respectively.ConclusionsAlthough, Bushehr province is located in a sunny part of Iran, the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency was high among its rural population. The shift of their lifestyle patterns and rapid industrialization in these rural areas may be responsible. Therefore, the enrichment of dietary sources with vitamin D and the use of vitamin D supplements are recommended to tackle the high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in the rural population of the northern part of the Persian Gulf.
Highlights
The deficiency of vitamin D has been reported from all parts of the world, and there is a significant association between low serum levels of vitamin D and communicable and non-communicable diseases [1]
In this population-based study which was done in all rural districts of Bushehr province, it was shown that a half of the rural participants had vitamin D deficiency, more than one to five of the participants had vitamin D insufficiency, and one to five of total population had sufficient vitamin D levels
In the current study, we could not compare the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in urban and rural regions, we found that the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in rural areas was at least similar to those prevalence rates that has been reported from Bushehr city, the middle east and south east of Asia, and China [19, 28,29,30]
Summary
The deficiency of vitamin D has been reported from all parts of the world, and there is a significant association between low serum levels of vitamin D and communicable and non-communicable diseases [1]. Vitamin D deficiency has been defined at cut point serum levels of less than 20 ng/ml because at this level, parathyroid hormone begins to increase. The results of health outcome assessment of different studies indicated that all-cause mortality [4], cardiovascular diseases [5,6,7] breast and colorectal cancers [8, 9], diabetes mellitus [10, 11] acute respiratory tract infections [12] and SARSCoV-2 positivity [13] appeared beyond the current target 25(OH)D concentration of 30 ng/mL (75nmol/L) for vitamin D deficiency.
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