Risk factors and prevalence of vitamin D deficiency among Yemeni women attending Al-Zahrawi Medical Center in Sana'a City

Gawad M. A. Alwabr; Ahmad Y. A. Al-Wadhaf

Gawad M. A. Alwabr Department of Biomedical Engineering, Sana'a Community College, Sana'a, Yemen
Ahmad Y. A. Al-Wadhaf Al-Zahrawi Medical Center, Ministry of Public Health, Sana'a, Yemen

Keywords: Vitamin D deficiency, Prevalence, Risk factors, Sana'a, Yemen

Abstract

Vitamin D deficiency is taken into account a serious public unhealthiness that affects people across all life stages. Vitamin D deficiency is thought to affect over one billion people worldwide and currently considered a pandemic. This study aimed to determine the prevalence and assess risk factors of vitamin D deficiency in Yemeni women aged 15-75 in Sana'a City. The present cross-sectional study used a convenience sample of ninety-four women aged 15-75 years and conducted in Al-Zahrawi Medical Center in Sana'a City between August and November 2018. Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations were measured in all participants after recruiting their sociodemographics, health, lifestyle, multivitamin and dietary intakes, and anthropometric data. Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations were defined as normal (>30 ng/mL), insufficiency (20-30 ng/mL), deficiency (10-20 ng/mL), and severe deficiency (<10 ng/mL). IBM SPSS Statistics version 20 was used for data analysis. The results showed that the overall prevalence of hypovitaminosis D (25(OH)D <30 ng/mL) was 87.2%; 23.4% of them had severe deficiency (˂10 ng/mL), 31.9% had deficiency (≥10-<20 ng/mL), and 31.9% had vitamin D insufficiency (≥20-<30 ng/mL). Symptoms of vitamin D deficiency and smoking were statistically associated with vitamin D status (P= 0.001 and 0.031), respectively. Therefore, it can be concluded that there are alarming levels of vitamin D deficiency in a sample of Yemeni women. There is an urgent need for intervention programs to increase vitamin D concentrations of these women. Also, many efforts must begin to prevent health effects related to vitamin D deficiency.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3744221

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