Is Sunshine Vitamin Related to Adolescent Depression? A Cross-Sectional Study of Vitamin D Status and Depression Among Rural Adolescents

Abstract

Background: Adolescence is the phase of rapid transition of the body. The requirement of all minerals and vitamins changes in this phase of life so does Vitamin D. Despite Vitamin D being abundantly available, its deficiency, which can cause innumerable side effects on the body, is extremely common among the general population.Material and methods: The present study was a cross-sectional study carried out from January 2021 to July 2022 for two years at various government rural high schools in Kolar, Karnataka, India. All adolescents who were aged 11-18 years and studying in 9 th and 10 th standards were included in the study after consent and assent. Adolescent boys and girls with any pre-existing mental health illness were excluded from the study. To assess depression, Beck's Depression Inventory (BDI-II) was used. Vitamin D3 levels were assessed by using VITROS Immunodiagnostic products using a 25-OH Total reagent pack. All data were entered in a Microsoft Excel sheet (Redmond, USA) and analyzed using IBM Corp. Released 2013. IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 22.0. Armonk, NY: IBM Corp. To check for the association between factors, Chi-square was applied with a level of significance defined as a p-value less than 0.05.Results: Out of 451 students, 272 (60.3%) belonged to the 15-year age group, 224 (49.7%) were boys, 235 (52.1%) were studying in 10 th standard, 323 (71.6 %) belonged to nuclear families, 379 (84%) were nonvegetarian by diet, 222 (49.2%) had sun exposure in the afternoon, and 156 (34.6%) had a sun exposure of fewer than 60 minutes, 133 (29.5%) had severe depression according to Beck's Depression Inventory-II. One hundred sixty-two (35.9%) had insufficient Vitamin D3 levels (12-20 ng/ml), and 66 (14.6%) had deficient levels of Vitamin D3 (less than 12 ng/dl). There was a statistically significant association between depression and Vitamin D3 levels.Conclusion: There are innumerable causes of adolescent depression. The present study shows Vitamin D levels were statistically associated with depression among adolescents. Vitamin D supplementation of at least 600 international units, which is the recommended dietary allowance (RDA), could be beneficial in tackling Vitamin D to sufficiency status (20-100 ng/ml) and also indirectly address Adolescent Depression. Better study designs, like randomized control trials showing Vitamin D intervention and its possible curative role in adolescent depression, are required to establish the causal association.

Vitamin D deficiency and its association with Depression in under 18s: A mysterious relationship of sunlight with darkness

“…The remaining 4 out 5 articles have been cross sectional models with relatively small sample sizes but some of these did show statistically significant results. Tarikere Satyanarayana et al 21 an article from India studied 451 adolescents who were aged 11-18 years. One of the odd features of this article is the definition of vitamin D insufficiency and deficiency.…”

Vitamin D Deficiency and Its Association with Depression in Under 18s: A Mysterious Relationship of Sunlight with Darkness

“…This study however did highlight the limitations including analysing depressive symptoms as a categorical variable instead of a continuous score, which might have lost some refinement, but this was necessary due to highly skewed distribution.The remaining 4 out 5 articles have been cross sectional models with relatively small sample sizes but some of these did show statistically significant results. Tarikere Satyanarayana et al an article from India studied 451 adolescents who were aged 11-18 years[21]. One of the odd features of this article is the definition of vitamin D insufficiency and deficiency.…”