Resit SEVİMLİ, Cengiz YAKİNCİ, Mehmet Esref ENCAN, Eda KAYHAN, Mehmetsah SAKCİ, Ahmet SAGİR, Haci POLAT

The prevalence of vitamin d deficiency-insufficiency in medical faculty students

Aim: The vitamin D deficiency is a pandemic health problem due to worldwide modernization. We tried to determine the impact of the reduced sun exposure on the vitamin D levels of the medical faculty students due to the long study hours and indoor study environment and classrooms.Material and Method: Two-hundred and eleven (113 women, 98 men) medical faculty students were included in the study. Blood samples were obtained from the students and serum 25 hydroxyvitamin D3 levels were measured on the same day. Students were healthy individuals, aged 17-29 years (mean age= 19 years). Data were analyzed using SPSS software program. The frequency distribution of the qualitative data and arithmetic mean, minimum, maximum and standard deviation of the quantitative data were used to define descriptive statistics. Non-parametric tests and Chi-square test were used for the analysis of qualitative data;the analysis of the quantitative data was done by observing normally distributed data. The significance level of Chi-square test, independent-student t-test and Mann-Whitney U test were accepted as p≤0.05.Results: Serum 25 hydroxyvitamin D3 levels was below 20 ng/ml in 56% (n=118) of the students, of which 72% (n=85) were women.Conclusion: Especially, women had high levels of vitamin D deficiency in our study. This high ratio gives rise to thought that women spend more of their time indoor spaces due to modernization., women are exposed to sun light less than men, and thus they have higher levels of vitamin D deficiency.

PDF

___

Mithal A, Wahl D, Bonjour J, Burckhardt P, Dawson Hughes B, Eisman JA, et al. Global vitamin D status and determinants of hypovitaminosis D. Osteoporos Int 2009;20(11):1807-20.
Holick MF. The vitamin D deficiency pandemic: a forgotten hormone important for health. Public Health Reviews 2010;32(1):267-83.
Ginde AA, Liu MC, Camargo CA Jr. Demographic differences and trends of vitamin D insufficiency in the US population, 1988-2004. Arch Intern Med 2009;169(6):626-32.
Halicioglu O, Aksit S, Koc F, Akman SA, Albudak E, Yaprak I, et al. Vitamin D deficiency in pregnant women and their neonates in spring time in western Turkey. Paediatr Perinat Epidemiol 2012;26(1):53-60.
Aypak C, Turedi O, Yuce A. The association of vitamin D status with cardiometabolic risk factors, obesity and puberty in children. Eur J Pediatr 2014;173(3):367-73.
Bozkurt S, Alkan B, Yildiz F, Gumus S, Sezer N, Ardıçoglu O, et al. Age, Sex, and Seasonal Variations in the Serum Vitamin D3 Levels in a Local Turkish Population. Turkish Journal of Rheumatology 2014;29(1):14-19.
Hollis, BW. Assessment and interpretation of circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D and 1, 25-dihydroxyvitamin D in the clinical environment.Endocrinol Metab Clin North Am 2010;39(2):271-86.
Lips P. Vitamin D deficiency and secondary hyperparathyroidism in the elderly: consequences for bone loss and fractures and therapeutic implications. Endocr Rev 2001;22(4):477-501.
Sahota O, Mundey MK, San P, Godber IM, Lawson N, Hosking DJ. The relationship between vitamin D and parathyroid hormone: calcium homeostasis, bone turnover, and bone mineral density in postmenopausal women with established osteoporosis. Bone 2004;35(1):312-9.
Uçar F, Taşlıpınar MY, Soydaş AÖ, Özcan N. Ankara Etlik İhtisas Eğitim Araştırma Hastanesi’ne Başvuran Hastalarda 25-OH Vitamin D Düzeyleri. Eur J Basic Med Sci 2012; 2(1):12-5.
Pearce SHS, Cheetham TD. Diagnosis and management of vitamin D deficiency. BMJ 2010;340:b5664.
Holick MF, Binkley NC, Bischoff-Ferrari HA, Gordon MC, Hanley DA, Heaney RP, et al. Evaluation, treatment, and prevention of vitamin D deficiency: an endocrine society clinical practice guideline. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 2011;96(7):1911-30.
Öngen B, Kabaroğlu C, Parıldar Z. D Vitamini’nin Biyokimyasal ve Laboratuvar Değerlendirmesi. Türk Klinik Biyokimya Dergisi 2008;6(1):23-31.
Wacker M, Holick MF. Vitamin D-Effects on Skeletal and Extraskeletal Health and the Need for Supplementation. Nutrients 2013;5(1):111-48.
Hyppönen E, Boucher BJ, Berry DJ, Power C. 25-hydroxyvitamin D, IGF-1, and metabolic syndrom at 45 years of age: a cross-sectional study in the 1958 British Birth Cohort. Diabetes 2008;57(2):298-305.
Holick MF. Vitamin D: a D-lightful health perspective. Nutr Rev 2008;66(10 Suppl):182-94.
Bringhurst FR, Demay MB, Krane SM, Kronenberg HM. Bone and Mineral Metabolism in Health and Disease. In: Kasper DL, Braunwald E, Fauci AS, Hauser SL, Longo DL, Jameson JL, editors. Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine. 16th edition. New York:MCGraw-Hill Companies; 2005. p. 2238-86.
Spiro A, Buttriss JL. Vitamin D: an overview of vitamin D status and intake in Europe. Nutr Bull 2014;39(4):322-50.