Vitamin D Deficiency among Patients Visiting a Tertiary Care Hospital: A Descriptive Cross-sectional Study

INTRODUCTION: Vitamin D deficiency is a common condition prevalent among both developed and developing countries where it is seen mostly in females. It has been linked to various skeletal and non-skeletal diseases. This study was done to find out the prevalence of Vitamin D deficiency and clinical features of deficient patients attending the outpatient department of a tertiary care hospital. METHODS: This descriptive cross-sectional study was done among the patients attending the outpatient department of a tertiary care hospital in Kathmandu, Nepal. The study was conducted from May 2019 to July 2019. The ethical approval was taken from the Institutional Review Committee (ref no. 310520113). Convenient sampling was done. The collected data was entered in Microsoft Excel and was analyzed in the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 26. RESULTS: Out of 481 participants, the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency was 335 (69.6%) (65.49-73.71 at 95% Confidence Interval). Severe vitamin D deficiency was seen in 78 (16.2%) and insufficient vitamin D in 77 (16%) of the patients. The mean serum vitamin D concentration by gender was 22.38±17.07ng/ml in males and 18.89±15.25ng/ml in females. A total of 263 (54.6%) females and 72 (14.97%) males had vitamin D deficiency. The most common symptoms found in vitamin D deficiency patients were fatigue 187 (55.8%), muscle cramps 131 (39.1%), generalized myalgia 125(37.31%), bone and joint pain 111 (33.13%). CONCLUSIONS: Vitamin D deficiency was prevalent especially in females and elderly people. Fatigability was present in more than half of the vitamin D deficient patients.