Period-Prevalence Of Vitamin D Deficiency Among Referral Individuals In Sulaimanyah Province

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Vitamin D deficiency is recognized as a global public health problem which has effect on the health of the skeletal and extra skeletal tissues. The goal of this study was to determine the prevalence of Vitamin D deficiency in the Sulaimanyah population and to compare different age groups, gender and season of the year. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This was a cross sectional study that involved 19,267 patients who visited Sulaimanyah (private and governerate) clinical laboratories, of which 6304 males and 12,963 females their ages ranged between (1-95) years in the period between January 2013 and January 2017, all vitamin D measured by electrochemiluminescence (ECL) techniques were enrolled in this study. RESULTS: A total of 19,267 persons were analyzed, the overall vitamin D deficiency (below 20 ng/ml) was 68.1%. The prevalence of vitamin D deficiency was increased in those patients their age groups between 30-39 years (13.6%), was greater among women (48.8%) and more common during winter (19.6%). CONCLUSION: The currently available study on the Sulaimanyah population suggests that the Vitamin D deficiency is common. This indicates that strategies are needed at the population level to improve vitamin D status of Sulaimanyah province.