Vitamin D deficiency among hospitalized infants with acute lower respiratory tract infection

Abstract

Background: Vitamin D plays important role in immunity and its deficiency might be associated with increased risk of lower respiratory tract infection. This study aimed to determine whether vitamin D deficiency is commoner in infants with acute lower respiratory tract infection as compared to normal infants and to correlate the severity of vitamin D deficiency with severity of ALRTI.Methods: A hospital based prospective case-control study was conducted in a tertiary care hospital. A total of 208 infants (109 cases and 99 controls) older than 7 days to 12 months of age, were enrolled. Cases were selected according to the definition of ALRTI given by WHO (2). Controls were chosen from children attending paediatric outpatients department for immunization or minor short duration aliments. Primary outcome measured as serum 25-hydroxy vitamin D3 (25OHD3) levels and severity of ALRTI was independent variable.Results: Among 109 cases suffering from ALRTI, vitamin D deficiency was present in 65.11%, 92.3%, 88.9% children of ‘pneumonia, severe pneumonia and very severe pneumonia group respectively. It was found that vitamin D deficiency was commoner in cases as compared to controls (80.70 % vs 25.50% ) with OR of 12.40 (95 % CI was 6.13 - 25.38). There was inverse relationship between the severity of ALRTI and Vitamin D levels (p value <0.001 and Pearson correlation coefficient -0.32).Conclusions: Vitamin D levels were significantly lower in ALRI cases as compared to controls and had negative correlation between vitamin D levels and severity of pneumonia.