Prevalence of vitamin D deficiency and its relationship with epileptic severity in a pediatric department of tertiary care hospital

Abstract

Aim To evaluate the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in pediatric epileptic patients and to assess if there is any correlation between vitamin D level and disease severity in epileptic patients. Objective To estimate vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency as percentage of enrolled patients in pediatric department and to identify if there is any correlation between vitamin D deficiency and factors such as age, sex, BMI, total serum calcium levels, antiepileptic drugs, and types of seizures. Patients and methods A prospective interventional clinical study was carried out in a tertiary care hospital between September 2018 and February 2019. We included 30 pediatric epileptic patients of age group 1–14 years from whom the blood samples were withdrawn and were sent to the laboratory for the estimation of vitamin D levels. Results The data collected was analyzed using statistical method χ2 and analysis of variance in Prism 8.0 version. The prevalence of vitamin D deficiency and its correlation with epilepsy was determined. In this study, we found that there was a high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in pediatric epileptic patients (23 patients out of 30–73%). The other risk factors for vitamin D deficiency found in this study are children of age group 5–10 years (43%), malnourished patients (40%), hypocalcemic patients (40%), and patients who use antiepileptic drugs for more than 2 years (57%). Conclusion Based on the aforementioned scientific analysis, it can be concluded that there is a high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in pediatric patients with epilepsy. So, vitamin D3 supplements should be given for all epileptic children even before the initiation of antiepileptic therapy. Patients’ parents were educated on the importance of vitamin D.