Vitamin D Status of Pregnant Women and the Association between Vitamin D Levels and Selected Pregnancy Outcomes

Background: High prevalence of vitamin D deficiency is recognized to be widespread amongst pregnant women, especially in the temperate regions of the world, and has been associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes. There is paucity of data on studies evaluating vitamin D status, and its effect on pregnancy in African population. Study objectives: This study was conducted to determine the vitamin D status of parturient women, and its relationship with selected pregnancy outcomes-fetal birth weight, placental weight, and Apgar scores at Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital (NAUTH), Nnewi, Nigeria. Methods: This is a pilot cross-sectional study involving 40 consecutive consenting parturient women at NAUTH, Nnewi. The subject were recruited through a convenience sampling technique. The serum of maternal blood samples collected before delivery was assayed for 25 hydroxyvitamin D3 using HPLC system. The neonatal characteristics and placental weights were recorded in an attached proforma form. Statistical analysis of data was perform using SPSS version 21. Relationship of variables was done with Chi-square test. A p-value of 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant at 95 % confidence interval. Result: The mean maternal serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D2 was 53.2 � 11.3ng/ml. The prevalence of vitamin D deficiency was 7.5 %, while 92.5 % of the parturient women had normal maternal levels of vitamin D. The mean fetal birth weight was 3.3 � 0.5kg, and there was a significant positive correlation between maternal serum vitamin D status and fetal birth weight (p=0.01, r=0.560) Conclusion: Prevalence of vitamin D amongst pregnant women of southeast Nigeria is low. There is positive correlation between maternal vitamin D status and fetal birth weight.