Perturbing Status of Vitamin D among Adolescents in Jammu

Abstract

Vitamin D deficiency has emerged as pandemic health problem involving both developed as well as developing countries of the world, but still remains the most under diagnosed and under treated nutritional deficiency of the world. Vitamin D deficiency in adolescents may be asymptomatic or may present with vague manifestations including pain in weight bearing joints, difficulty in walking, climbing stairs and muscle cramps and can be easily misdiagnosed as Fibromyalgia, Chronic fatigue syndrome or even simply depression in adolescents. The present study was undertaken with the aim to evaluate the vitamin D status in adolescent population of this part of the country with abundant sunshine and with people having good economic condition. In this study, a total of 120 adolescents, including 45 boys and 75 girls were screened for their vitamin D (25OH -D) status from the month of May 2019 to December 2019. Out this 72 (60%) were having Vitamin D levels below 20 ngm/ml,[25][26][27][28][29][30] had levels above 30 ngm/ml. This study has shown a very high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in adolescence population of Jammu and it is suggested that all adolescent boys and girls who presentss with non specific musculoskeletal pains should be screened for vitamin D status.