Vitamin D status of adult population aged 30-60 years in Vadodara city- A cross sectional study

Abstract

Background: Vitamin D deficiency (VDD) is a public health problem worldwide, but relatively few countries have data available on the vitamin D status of their population. Objective: The objective of the study was to map the prevalence of VDD among the adult population of Vadodara city in Gujarat, West India and identify its risk factors. Method: 141 adult subjects (males=50, females=91) in the age group 30-60 years, who gave written consent for participation, were enrolled for the cross-sectional study through snowball effect. Data on anthropometric indices and background information was collected from them. Results: The mean serum 25(OH)D level of the subjects was found to be 13.53 ± 7.0, with significantly lower levels among females. About 88.6% subjects had VDD with 25(OH)D levels 30ng/ml). When vitamin-D status was cross tabulated with age, maximum deficiency was seen among 30-40y (31.9%) followed by 51-60y (29.8%). In relation to the anthropometric indices (BMI, WC, WHR, WSR, body fat and blood pressure), the prevalence of all the risk-factors was high among the group with low levels of vitamin-D (<20ng/ml) as compared to the high level group (≥20ng/ml). Nearly 27% subjects had a history of fractures of which 23% had VDD. With respect to sun exposure, the vitamin-D levels were significantly low among the subjects with no or low exposure (<140 min/week). Conclusion: Thus, a high prevalence of VDD was observed in the population indicating an urgent need to discover and implement preventive strategies and address this epidemic.