Vitamin D deficiency among pregnant women attending tertiary care centre in Tamil Nadu

Pages: 1760-1763
Kavitha Durairaj, R. Murali, and J. Rukumani (College of Nursing, Mother Theresa Post Graduate and Research Institute of Health Sciences, Gorimedu, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu)
M. Muthulakshmi and P. Venkataraman (SRM Medical College Hospital and Research Centre, Tamil Nadu)

The present study was undertaken to the prevalence of Vitamin D deficiency and dietary calcium and sun exposure among pregnant women in a tertiary care hospital. This is a cross-sectional analysis of the serum 25(OH) D levels in pregnant women at SRM Hospital, a tertiary level hospital at booking-in appointment in the antenatal clinic. Pregnant women were enrolled between January to November 2016, at booking-in appointment in the antenatal clinic. The total number of pregnant women recruited during this period was 200. The subjects were included based on criteria such as from first registration, singleton pregnancy, live foetus with Cephalic presentation and parity between one and five. Women with pre-existing DM, glucose clearance test (OGCT) values of fasting blood glucose > 126 mg/dl or 2 h post glucose> 200 mg/dl or those taking metformin for polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) were excluded from the study and women with bad obstetric history (>3 spontaneous abortions), hypertension, renal, or hepatic dysfunction were also excluded. Among the pregnant women, 129 were having normal BMI, 67 were overweight and obese and 4 were underweight. Moderate level of anaemia was found with 114 cases studied. 96% of women were found to be having inadequate Vitamin D intake in their diet.94.5% of maternal women are pre-diabetic which may due to impaired insulin secretion. This protocol entails, identifying at risk women, also screening all pregnant women and treating those found to be vitamin D deficient. We recommend other hospitals do similar studies to look at the incidence in their own district population and therefore consider screening and treating for this major health problem.