Period-prevalence of vitamin d deficiency among referral individuals in Sulaimanyah province

Abstract EN

Background and Objective : Vitamin D deficiency is recognized as a global public health problem which has effect on the health of the skeletal and extra skeletal tissues.

The goal of this study was to determine the prevalence of Vitamin D deficiency in the Sulaimanyah population and to compare different age groups, gender and season of the year.

Materials and Methods : This was a cross sectional study that involved 19, 267 patients who visited Sulaimanyah (private and governerate) clinical laboratories, of which 6304 males and 12, 963 females their ages ranged between (1-95) years in the period between January 2013 and January 2017, all vitamin D measured by electrochemiluminescence (ECL) techniques were enrolled in this study.

Results : A total of 19, 267 persons were analyzed, the overall vitamin D deficiency (below 20 ng / ml) was 68.1 % .

The prevalence of vitamin D deficiency was increased in those patients their age groups between 30-39 years (13.6 % ), was greater among women (48.8 % ) and more common during winter (19.6 % ).

Conclusion : The currently available study on the Sulaimanyah population suggests that the Vitamin D deficiency is common.

This indicates that strategies are needed at the population level to improve vitamin D status of Sulaimanyah province.