Okan ASLANTURK, Mehmet Esref ENCAN, Yunus OKLU, Semih ERİTEN, Resit SEVİMLİ

Relation of vitamin D levels with sunlight, genetics and nutrition

Aim: We aimed to reveal the effects of reduced exposure to sunlight and insufficient nutrition due to urbanization and altered culturallife on Vitamin D levels in medical students.Materials and Methods: A hundred (56 female, 44 male) first year medical students were included in our study. A vitamin D screeningform, which included 16 questions, was used to obtain data regarding medical students’ genetic, nutrition and cultural life.Results: Out of 100 medical students, 25 hydroxyl vit- D3 levels was below 5 ng/ml in 10%, 5-10 ng/ml in 10%, 10-20 ng/ml in 30%,20-30 ng/ml in 40% and above 30 ng/ml in 10% medical students. While it has been found out that urbanization causes vitamin Ddeficiency and insufficiency in both females and males by negatively affecting sunlight exposure and nutrition, females have lesssunlight exposure and their vitamin D levels are lesser when compared with males.Conclusions: In conclusion, urbanization decreases exposure to sunlight and changes nutritional habits and forms a basis forvitamin D deficiency. So, this shows that lack of vitamin D, which is a major cause of bone fractures in older ages, is actually mainlyseen in younger ages.

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