Status of vitamin D deficiency in healthy individuals:
The results of a small-scale survey in a randomly selected asymptomatic
subjects (n=300) of Karachi showed that 84.3% subjects had vitamin D
levels less than 30 ng/mL (14). Female subjects (62.3%) were found more
vitamin D deficient as compared to male subjects (55.2%). Another study
in 858 subjects (351 males and 507 females) belonged to low income
peri-urban community in Karachi (15) showed that 89.9% subjects had
vitamin D levels less than 30 ng/mL. Female subjects were again found
more vitamin D deficient than male subjects.
A study conducted in 500 subjects (29% males and 71% females) from the
capital city Islamabad (13) showed that only 11% subjects had normal
vitamin D levels (30 ng/mL).
An interesting study was conducted in the undergraduate medical students
of different universities and health professionals to analyze the
awareness about sunlight exposure and importance of vitamin D and the
symptoms associated with its deficiency such as muscular pain and
fatigue (16). The result of this study revealed that the participants
were well aware about importance of vitamin D and the sign of its
deficiency but most of the participants were found to avoid sun exposure
intentionally, and only 8% of the participants knew about minimum sun
light exposure to prepare vitamin D. Vitamin D levels were not measured
in this study therefore it was difficult to correlate the symptoms such
as body pain with vitamin D deficiency.
A similar study was conducted to analyze vitamin D levels in the
students of a medical college of Peshawar which showed that 95.19%
subjects had vitamin D deficiency. (17)
Another study was conducted to evaluate vitamin D status in 191 randomly
selected medical students (86.43% females and 13.57% males) in Karachi
which revealed that 96.4% students had low vitamin D levels
(<30 ng/mL). (18)
A comprehensive study was conducted in healthy subjects (50 males and 38
females) of Lahore (19). The results showed that the average vitamin D
in the 98.86 % subjects was below 30ng/mL. Subjects such as females,
physically less active persons, indoor job holders, people with high
socioeconomic status along with higher education and subjects having
fair skin complexion were found more vitamin D deficienct.
Another small-scale study was conducted in 244 (79% females and 21%
males) healthy adults (20). Vitamin D deficiency (<30 ng/mL)
was present in 76.2% subjects and showed significant correlation with
the area of skin exposed to sunlight.
An observational study to assess the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency
in healthy male subjects (n=180) was conducted in Hyderabad, Sindh (21).
It found that 88.8% subjects had vitamin D deficiency (<30
ng/mL).
A large study was conducted to evaluate the effect of socio-economic
conditions, different types of residencies and vitamin D levels in
different localities of Karachi (22). A total of 4788 subjects were
randomly selected. Results showed that 74% of the subjects had vitamin
D deficiency (<30 ng/mL). Post hoc analyses revealed that
subjects belonged to densely populated areas with low socio-economic
status had significantly lower levels of vitamin D as compared with
subjects of middle income and resident of less densely populated areas.
A study to evaluate the vitamin D levels in 305 premenopausal women in
different parts of Karachi (23) revealed that 90.1% subjects had
vitamin D deficiency (<30 ng/mL). The vitamin D levels were
found to be associated with low sun exposure.
A large retrospective data analysis (audit) of 60937 specimens (30.7%
male and 69.3% female) from all over the country revealed that 61.1%
subject had mean log vitamin D value as 1.14 ng/mL (13.8 ng/mL). The
specimen received from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had lowest levels (11 ng/mL)
and the specimen received from Azad Kashmir had highest levels of
vitamin D (17.1 ng/mL). Overall results showed prevalence of vitamin D
deficiency in all over the country regardless location and gender
differences (24).
Another study conducted to assess the vitamin D status in different
parts of the country revealed that only 15.3% of 4830 subjects had
normal vitamin D levels (25).