AbstractIntroduction: Vitamin D is popularly known as a sunshine hormone. Deficiency of Vitamin D is very common and one of the major vitamin deficiency in the Indian subcontinent and is a profound health issue in India. In India, lack of Vitamin D is stated to affect nearly 90% of the apparently healthy individuals probably because of poor exposure to sunlight and poor dietary intake. The study was aimed to study the incidence of Vitamin D deficiency in urban population of central Madhya Pradesh. Materials and Methods: The study included patients coming to our diagnostic centre for Vitamin D testing. 500 patients of ages ranging from 0 to more than 80 years and both males and females were part of the study. Vitamin D estimation was performed by CLIA method on Advia Centaur XP (Siemens) fully automated immunoassay analyser. The guidelines provided by Endocrine Society Clinical Practice Guidelines on evaluation, treatment and prevention of Vitamin D deficiency (2011) was used as a basis to classify vitamin D results into deficiency, insufficiency and sufficiency levels. Results: A total of 500 patients of both the sexes and all ages were included in this study. There were 228 (45.6%) males and 272 (54.4%) females. The male to female ratio was 0.83:1. Vitamin D deficiencywas observed in 336 (67.2%) patients and insufficiency was seen in 83 (16.6%) patients. Conclusion: Deficiency of Vitamin D is a public health problem specially in urban population. A public private partnership model with awareness programmes and affordable testing facility will help in detection of Vitamin D deficiency.
Keywords: Vitamin D; Deficiency; Insufficiency; Toxicity