Vitamin D Deficiency among Patients Presenting to Outpatient Department of Medicine of a Tertiary Care Centre: A Descriptive Cross-sectional Study

INTRODUCTION: Vitamin D deficiency is a global health concern with over billions of people worldwide being vitamin D deficient or insufficient. Many epidemiological studies have reported cardiovascular diseases, autoimmune diseases and neoplastic diseases to be associated with vitamin D levels. This study aims to find out the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in patients presenting to the outpatient Department of Medicine of a tertiary care centre. METHODS: This was a descriptive cross-sectional study done among 362 patients in the outpatient Department of Medicine of a tertiary care centre between May, 2016 and August, 2016. Ethical Approval was taken from Institutional Review Committee (Reference number: 21082015). Convenience sampling was done. Informed consent was obtained and data were collected. Data were analysed using the Statistical Package for the Social Science version 25.0. Point estimate at a 95% Confidence Interval was calculated along with frequency and percentages for binary data. RESULTS: Out of 362 patients, vitamin D deficiency was found in 215 (59.39%) (54.33-64.45 at 95% Confidence Interval) patients. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of vitamin D deficiency was found to be lower to the other studies done in in similar settings. Physicians should be aware of the growing prevalence of vitamin D deficiency.