Vitamin D status of children at a tertiary care hospital of Agartala, North-east India: A cross-sectional study

Abstract

CONTEXT: High prevalence of Vitamin D deficiency (VDD) has been reported in the pediatric population from the different parts of the country. However, there is a lacuna of data on the Vitamin D status of children from the north-eastern part of the country. AIMS: The aim of this study is to assess the serum Vitamin D level and also to find out the prevalence of VDD among children and adolescents in Agartala, a major city in North-east India. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: Cross-sectional descriptive study. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The serum 25 (OH) D levels of 258 children from age 1 to below 18 years, attending the outpatient clinics of the hospital were analyzed from June 2020 to June 2021. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED: Data being nonparametric was presented as median and inter quartile range. The group differences were computed by the Mann–Whitney U-test. P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: Sixty percentage of the study population had insufficient levels of Vitamin D, with girls having significantly lower levels of serum Vitamin D. Only 27% of adolescents had optimum level of serum Vitamin D. CONCLUSION: A high prevalence of Vitamin D insufficiency and VDD was found among the children living in the urban and sub urban areas of Agartala city in North-east India.