High Prevalence of Vitamin D Deficiency in Medical Staff Draws Attention to a Retraining Program for Vitamin D

Background: Vitamin D is considered as a steroidal hormone and our knowledge about its rules in the skeletal and non skeletal health are rapidly expanding from the previous decade. Epidemiological studies have revealed an inverse association between vitamin D level and a wide range of modern diseases, such as type1 diabetes mellitus, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, breast cancer, and even heart diseases. Vitamin D deficiency is one of the major health problems in the Middle East, first lines for solving the problem are medical staff. In order to increase attention of medical staff, in this survey we study the distribution of vitamin D level in health care professionals who attend a retraining program for vitamin D. Our aim was to draw the attention of the medical staff about their own deficiency and pay more attention on vitamin D status of their patients. Methods: This cross sectional study was done on 80 health care professionals in the city of Yazd, who were selected through random sampling, in the summer of 2010. 25-Hydroxy vitamin D (25(OH) D) serum level was measured by ELISA method. Serum level of more than 30 ng/ml was considered as normal; 30 to 20; 20 to10; and less than 10 were mild, moderate and severe deficiency respectively. The data were collected by a researcher-making questionnaire. Results: The Study showed only less than ten percent of them had normal vitamin D. 54%, 23% and 15% had severe, moderate and mild deficiency, respectively. Among them vitamin D deficiency was more common in women (p=0.001). Conclusion: The present study found out high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency among health care professionals, despite a lot of studies which showed high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in the general population and the general belief for adequate vitamin D consumption (400-600 IU/Day) and the assumption of adequate sun exposure in our sunny area give them the false conception that they are receiving enough vitamin D, therefore this is the first step to sensitizes them about solving this health problem in themselves and their patients.