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Purpose of this study is to measure the Vitamin D status of healthy adults and to correlate with their lifestyle and feeding habits. Plasma 25-Hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) is the most common marker of vitamin D status of an individual. Deficiency of vitamin D is defined as the serum level less than 20 ng/mL and insufficiency as 30 ng/mL which can be prevented.

Vitamin D status of healthy adults (n = 82), both male and females between the age of 18 – 50 years who were attending to the National Transport Authority, Kandy, Sri Lanka from February to March 2016, was measured and correlated with their lifestyle, feeding habits, etc.

The mean total serum D (25(OH)D in this study was 40.15 ± 3.74 nmol/l with the mean value of 42.8 ± 28.8 and 37.5 ± 16.6 for women and men, respectively. The serum calcium levels of both female and male were around 8 mg/dl and the serum total protein was 6.5 and 7 g/dl in women and men, respectively. The serum Vitamin D, calcium and total protein were not statistically significantly different between the sexes. In this study, 84 per cent of the total subjects were normocalcemic, and there was no significant relationship between vitamin D levels and their calcium levels.

This study demonstrates that there was no statistically significant correlation between the serum vitamin D with age, serum calcium or total proteins. The majority of participants who had exposure to the sunlight more than 30 mins/day had sufficient level of vitamin D and less than 30 min/day exposure had deficiency of vitamin D. Daily intake of multivitamin influenced vitamin D status of the study group.

These findings will implicate the importance of cultural, feed and social habits for the nutritional status of an individual.and there are no reported studies on vitamin D status with reference to the variation of life style.

It is very important to investigate the factors affecting to the vitamin D status of a population as such, vitamin D insufficiency or deficiency can be prevented. In Sri Lanka, the population is consisting with many ethnic groups, different ethnic groups may find some nutritional problems according to their main cultural habits.

The objectives of this study are to evaluate the Vitamin D status in a group of healthy adults between 20 and 50 years in both men and women and to find out the correlation of their vitamin D status with their lifestyle and feeding habits, etc.

This paper aims to assess the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency among female university students and employees at the Hashemite University (HU) and, then, to identify risk factors for developing vitamin D deficiency among this population. Vitamin D deficiency remains widespread in many countries, including Jordan, and has been linked to many diseases.

In this cross-sectional study, blood samples were taken from 320 healthy females – 160 students and 160 employees – aged between 18 and 65 years old who presented for routine checkup at the medical center of HU. Level of direct sun exposure and barriers to getting enough sunlight (dress style, skin color and sunscreen use) were questioned. Serum levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D were measured, and the daily intakes of vitamin D, calcium and phosphorous were estimated through completing an adopted food frequency questionnaire. All required data were collected using a face-to-face interview by trained dietitians. The software package ESHA was used to determine the daily intake from the nutrients.

The prevalence of vitamin D deficiency (25-OHD < 25 nmol/L) was 31.2 per cent in female students compared to 20.5 per cent in female employees. Prolonged exposure to sun was independently related to vitamin D deficiency (odds ratio = 4.55); participants exposed for 30 minutes daily were at a higher risk for vitamin D deficiency. However, estimated vitamin D intake was not affected by age and working status.

The present study has some important limitations. First, this study based on serum 25-OHD results, which alone, without biochemical parameters such as parathyroid hormone (either primary or secondary), might be linked to accelerated degradation of 25-OHD and shorter half-life. Second, the half-life of 25-OHD was not consistently available. Third, the smaller sample size of participants. Finally, the present study did not distinguish between intake of vitamin D2 and D3. This limitation caused the inability to precisely evaluate the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in the studied population.

This study indicates that it is crucial to create awareness concerning the daily intake of vitamin D in the community to avoid long-term complications related to vitamin D deficiency, by using urgent measures including vitamin D supplementation and fortification of some highly consumed food, milk and other dairy products. Educational endeavors about sensible sun exposure should be implemented to improve vitamin D status among this population. The findings of the present study call for action at the national level to build strategies for health promotion about vitamin D supplementation in groups at risk for low supplementation (e.g. younger female students, with previous chronic diseases and poor sun exposure), and engage these populations in strategizing for successful and demographically relevant outreach and education in their own communities along with effort to prevent obesity and diabetes as well as raising awareness through simple programs to prevent and treat vitamin D deficiency among women living in Jordan.

The high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency among female university students in this study emphasizes the necessity of vitamin D supplementation and calls for action to build strategies for health promotion concerning vitamin D supplementation.

Vitamin D deficiency is prevalent worldwide. This paper aims to investigate the vitamin D status and dietary intake in young university students.

Forty-one healthy students aged 18–29 years from Coventry University UK were recruited during January-February 2019, including white Caucasians (n = 18), African-Caribbeans (n = 14) and Asians (n = 9). Plasma 25(OH)D concentrations were measured and dietary vitamin D intake was determined. Chi-square and simple linear regression were used to analyse the data.

The plasma 25(OH)D concentrations were (36.0 ± 22.2) nmol/L in all subjects, (46.5 ± 25.3) nmol/L in white Caucasians, (22.6 ± 7.4) nmol/L in African-Caribbeans and (37.4 ± 21.7 nmol/L) in Asians. The majority (85.7%) of African-Caribbeans were vitamin D deficient compared with 22.2% of white Caucasians and 33.3% of Asians (p = 0.001). Overweight/obese subjects showed a significant higher proportion of vitamin D deficiency (65%) than normal weight subjects (28.6%) (p = 0.04). The average dietary vitamin D intake in all subjects was (4.6 ± 3.9) µg/day. Only 12.1% of the subjects met the recommended dietary vitamin D intake of 10 µg/day. Dietary vitamin D intake (p = 0.04) and ethnicity (p = 0.01) were significant predictors of 25(OH)D levels and accounted for 13% and 18.5% of 25(OH)D variance, respectively.

This small-scale study showed an alarmingly high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency among subjects from African-Caribbean origin during wintertime. Education programs and campaigns are urgently needed to fight the vitamin D deficiency in this population.

The targeted population were in a critical period of transition from adolescence toward adulthood involving in changes in behaviours and nutrition.

This paper aims to review the metabolism, epidemiology and treatment of vitamin D and calcium insufficiency as well as its relation to rickets and diabetes type 1 during childhood and adolescence.

The most up‐to‐date and pertinent studies within the literature are included in this narrative review.

Vitamin D deficiency is common in developing countries and exists in both childhood and adult life. The great importance of vitamin D is the moderation of calcium (Ca) and phosphorus (P) homeostasis as well as the absorption of Ca. While insufficiency of vitamin D is a significant contributing factor to the risk of rickets in childhood, it is possible that a more marginal deficiency of vitamin D during life span contributes to osteoporosis as well as potentially to the development of various other chronic diseases such as diabetes type 1.

This paper gives a concise, up‐to‐date overview to nutritionists and dietitians on how vitamin D deficiency may effect rickets and type 1 diabetes.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate if any exposure to segregation minimal association in a single male prison population had any association with an increased risk of vitamin D deficiency.

A retrospective case study was undertaken with all inmates who had a 25-hyrdoxy-vitamin D test taken during the study period deemed eligible. Hand searching of the medical records by an independent party identified eligible participants whose data were recorded for analysis.

In total, 124 prisoners were deemed eligible for inclusion; 67 were vitamin D sufficient and 57 were vitamin D deficient by Australian standards. Time in segregation minimal association was shown not to be significant, however, smoking (OR 2.93, 95% CI 1.27-6.81, p=0.012) and having Asian ethnicity (OR 4.16, 95% CI 1.56-11.10, p=0.004) independently significantly increased the risk of vitamin D deficiency.

This research is limited by its study design, small sample size and single location.

This paper presents the first published research into vitamin D levels in a prison population in Australia, and provides a basis for a larger prospective cohort study.

This study aims to investigate the association between vitamin D measured in serum 25 hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] and outcomes of COVID-19 patients in Bahrain. This paper hypothesized that lower serum 25(OH)D concentration in COVID 19 patients is associated with longer viral clearance time (VCT) and higher risk of admission to the intensive care unit (ICU).

This study used a retrospective cohort design of patients admitted to Salmaniya Medical Complex, Manama, Kingdom of Bahrain, from February to June 2020. This study included patients with positive, confirmed COVID-19 diagnosis made using reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), World Health Organization diagnosis manual and local diagnostic guidelines. Primary outcome measures were: VCT measured as the time in days between the first positive RT-PCR test result and the first of two consecutive negative RT-PCR results on recovery and admission need to ICU.

A total of 450 patients were analyzed; mean age was 46.4 ± 12.4 years and 349 (78%) were men. Mean 25(OH)D concentration was 41.7 ± 23.7 nmol/L for the entire sample. Severe vitamin D deficiency (<25 nmol/L) was present in 20%, mild-to-moderate deficiency (25–50 nmol/L) in 55%, insufficiency (50 to <75 nmol/L) in 18% and sufficiency (=75 nmol/L) in 7%. The mean VCT was 12.9 ± 8.2 days. Multivariate linear regression analysis showed that severe vitamin D deficiency was associated with longer VCT, with an average of three extra days after correction for age and sex (β = 3.1; p = 0.001). Multinomial regression analysis showed that vitamin D deficiency was associated with an 83% increased risk of admission to ICU after correction for age and sex (odds ratio = 1.8; p = 0.03).

The results showed that severe vitamin D deficiency was associated with longer recovery time from COVID-19. Low serum 25(OH)D is associated with increased need for critical care in an ICU. Large-scale randomized controlled trials are necessary to further investigate the complex association between vitamin D and COVID-19 infection.

Obesity is a major risk factor for chronic renal fibrosis and kidneys’ structural and inflammatory impairments. This study aims to examine the possible therapeutic effects of vitamin D supplementation against renal inflammatory and kidney’s structural fibrosis and degeneration.

Forty male Wistar rats were divided into two groups for 16 weeks: normal diet (ND) and high-fat diet (HFD); then, each group was subdivided into two groups including ND, ND + vitamin D and HFD, HFD + vitamin D. Vitamin D supplementation was done for five weeks at 500 IU/kg dosage. Renal tissue concentrations of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, interleukin 6, interleukin 1 beta, monocyte chemoattractant protein (MCP)-1 and transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-β), serum values of lipids, markers of glucose homeostasis and urea, creatinine and uric acid and renal tissue histological and structural changes were determined.

HFD feeding caused remarkable histological and structural changes including higher TNF-α, MCP-1 and TGF-β concentrations in renal tissues of rats, whereas vitamin D has potent anti-inflammatory effects (P = 0.036, 0.047 and 0.02, respectively). Vitamin D administration also reduced urea and uric acid concentrations (P = 0.023 and 0.049, respectively). Moreover, vitamin D reduced glomerulomegaly, reduced lipid accumulation and limited dilated Bowman’s space in rats and improved glycemic status by increasing insulin (P = 0.04) and reducing insulin resistance (P = 0.006).

The current study has some limitations. It was better to measure the level of inflammatory cytokines’ expression in the kidney tissues. Additionally, the measurement of baseline values of inflammatory cytokines was not possible because of the possibility of animals’ drop-out.

According to the study findings, vitamin D treatment in the current report showed a significant therapeutic role in reducing inflammation, improving glycemic and lipid abnormalities and structural and histological modifications in renal tissues of rats. These findings have a great value because after confirming in a human model, vitamin D can be suggested as a potential therapeutic tool in clinical practice.

After being confirmed by other animal or human researches, the results of the current work could have great social implications by reducing the prevalence of obesity-related renal complications and highlighting the beneficial roles of vitamin D.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to investigate the histological and inflammatory changes in the kidneys and metabolic parameters in the HFD induced rats and also clarified the therapeutic roles of vitamin D in ameliorating the inflammatory, histological, metabolic and functional changes in the kidneys of obese rats.

Somalia is an East African nation with a history of civil unrest that produced a significant influx of refugees in the USA in the last 25 years. Between 2000 and 2010, 40 percent of all US Somali refugees settled in Minnesota, which produces new cultural and health challenges for local communities and the state government. One such challenge is vitamin D deficiency, or hypovitaminosis D (Hv-D). Hv-D is developed through insufficient exposure to sunlight and low nutrient intake leading to increased risk for weakness and inflammation, oral health problems, diabetes, cardiovascular and autoimmune diseases and malignancies. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

In this narrative review, demographic, geographic and cultural information about Somali immigration are discussed.

Recent data suggest Somalis living in northern climates (Minnesota, the USA, Helsinki, Finland, Sweden and the UK) experience significant deficiencies in vitamin D. Vitamin D is stimulated by ultraviolet light exposure, a balanced and healthy diet, and dietary supplementation. High unemployment rates affecting access to health information and clinical services, significant cultural differences and climate differences pre-dispose this population to Hv-D. Health education and health promotion programming at the community and state levels in Minnesota should recognize the risk factors associated with Hv-D and the vulnerability of Somali refugees.

Current and future health programming should be re-assessed for adequate attention to vitamin D deficiency and cultural competency associated with the Somali immigrant population.

Adipose tissue accumulation by trapping vitamin D and reducing its level may cause serious side effects. The purpose of this study is to determine the effects of vitamin D supplementation on dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), paraoxonase 1 (PON 1), insulin, free fatty acid (FFA), apolipoprotein-AI (Apo-AI) and apolipoprotein B (Apo-B) concentration in obese and overweight participants under low-calorie diet (LCD) program.

Healthy overweight and obese individuals (n = 70) with vitamin D deficiency were randomly assigned into 2 groups to receive either vitamin D supplements (an oral 2,000 IU vitamin D supplement) or placebo for 8 weeks.

All the participants were given an LCD program during the intervention. Vitamin D supplementation led to a significant increase in the levels of 25(OH)D (vitamin D vs placebo groups: 36.6 ± 9.8 vs 19.9 ± 3.5 ng/mL, p < 0.001), PON 1 levels (vitamin D vs placebo groups: 80 ± 25 vs 58 ± 23.2 ng/mL, p = 0.001), DHEA concentration (vitamin D vs placebo groups: 2.3 ± 0.7 vs 1.5 ± 0.6 ng/mL, p < 0.001) and Apo-AI levels (vitamin D vs placebo groups 3.7 ± 0.5 vs 3 ± 0.5 mg/dL, p < 0.001). Besides, intake of vitamin D supplements led to a significant decrease in FFA (vitamin D vs placebo groups: 3.1 ± 0.75 vs 3.5 ± 0.5 ng/mL, p = 0.001). After adjusting the analyses based on baseline levels, age and baseline body mass index measures, significant changes were observed in the insulin levels (0.03 ± 0.06 vs −1.7 ± 0.6 µIU/ml, p = 0.04). But the authors did not find any significant difference in the concentration of Apo-B between groups (vitamin D vs placebo groups: 71.5 ± 35.5 vs 66.6 ± 28.5 mg/dL, p = 0.05).

Overall vitamin D supplementation for eight weeks among vitamin D-deficient obese and overweight participants had beneficial effects on serum DHEA PON 1 FFA insulin and Apo- AI while it did not affect the Apo-B concentration.

This study aims to investigate the association of vitamin D intake and the risk of depression, anxiety and stress among Tehranian female adolescents.

This cross-sectional analysis included 263 participants. A valid and reliable food frequency questionnaire was used to determine dietary intake of vitamin D. Depression, anxiety and stress scores were characterized by Depression Anxiety Stress Score-21 questionnaire. Multivariable logistic regression was used to estimate the odds ratio (OR) for the occurrence of depression, anxiety and stress according to the tertiles of vitamin D intake.

The mean ± standard deviation age and body mass index (BMI) of participants were 16.2 ± 1.0 years and 22.2 ± 4.1 kg/m², respectively. Mean score of depression, anxiety and stress of participants were 9.8 (low-grade depression), 8.4 (low-grade anxiety) and 14.0 (borderline for stress), respectively. In the final model, after adjustment for age, BMI, physical activity, mother/father’s education level, dietary fiber and total energy intake, the OR for depression in the highest compared to the lowest tertile of vitamin D intake was 0.53 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.24–0.98) (p for trend: 0.040). Moreover, based on the fully adjusted model, participants in the highest tertile of vitamin D intake had lower odds of stress (OR: 0.49; 95% CI: 0.23–0.93), in comparison to those in the lowest one (p for trend: 0.021).

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to assess the association of vitamin D intake and risk of psychological disorders, including depression, stress and anxiety in Middle East and North Africa region’s female adolescents.