Reduced Vitamin D levels and Iron Deficiency Anaemia in Pregnant Women: An Evolving Correlation

Abstract

Aim:To elucidate correlation between serum vitamin D levels and iron status in pregnant women and to generate hypothesis for supplementation of vitamin D in iron deficient patients. Methods: It is a prospective observational study of 101 pregnant women, recruited at the Government District Headquarters Hospital, Udagamandalam. Descriptive analysis was performed for the demographic characteristics. Spearman's correlation test was used to determine the strength of correlation between vitamin D and the complete blood count parameters. Each outcome variables whose levels were with a P (< 0.05) is significant. Results: For the 101 recruited patients, the mean haemoglobin level was 9.35±0.89 g/dL, iron at 73.0±15.3 microgram/dL, ferritin at 13.0±3.8 ng/mL. There was a moderate positive correlation observed between vitamin D and haemoglobin (r s = 0.49, n = 101 p< 0.001). A strong positive correlation was noted between vitamin D and iron (r s = 0.788, p< 0.000), transferrin (r s = 0.740, p< 0.001), ferritin (r s = 0.783, p< 0.001), hematocrit (r s = 0.729, p< 0.001). A strong negative correlation was noted for TIBC (r s = -0.744, p< 0.000). Conclusion: In this population of pregnant women, it is suggestive that the low vitamin D levels are correlated with lower haemoglobin and ferritin levels. Further investigations needs to be conducted to elucidate whether there is a direct causal effect of vitamin D deficiency and iron deficiency anaemia.