Knowledge of Vitamin D among First-year Medical Undergraduate Students of a Medical College: A Descriptive Cross-sectional Study

INTRODUCTION: Vitamin D also known as the sunshine vitamin, helps in bone metabolism and calcium homeostasis. It is estimated that one billion people in the world have vitamin D deficiency making it a public health problem. The objective of this study is to find out the knowledge regarding vitamin D among first-year medical undergraduate students of a medical college. METHODS: This is a descriptive cross-sectional study carried out from 2nd February 2020 to 15th February 2020 at Kathmandu Medical College Teaching Hospital, Duwakot among medical undergraduate students of a medical college. Ethical clearance was received from the Institutional Review Committee of Kathmandu Medical College Teaching Hospital (Reference Number: 2812201809). A structured self-designed multiple-choice questionnaire on vitamin D knowledge was used. Convenient sampling method was applied and statistical analysis was done with Statistical Package for the Social Sciences 20 version. RESULTS: Out of total 157 undergraduate medical students, 21 (13.3%) exhibited good knowledge, 116 (73.9.8%) had average, and 20 (12.8%) had poor knowledge. There were 83 (52.9%) Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery students, 39 (24.8%) were Bachelor of Dental Surgery and 35 (22.3%) were Nursing students. CONCLUSIONS: We found a satisfactory level of knowledge of vitamin D among first-year undergraduate medical students of a medical college when compared to similar studies. The majority of students from all three disciplines had average knowledge of vitamin D.