Comparison of Vitamin D levels between urban and rural college students

Background: The D vitamins are a group of sterols that have a hormone like function. It acts like a secosteroid hormone that target more than 1000 genes in the human body. Vitamin D (Vit D) is vitally important for development, growth and maintenance of health at all times during the life cycle, from birth till old age. International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF) and DSM Nutritional Products jointly defined Vit D > 75 nmol/L as optimal, 50-74 as suboptimal, 25-49 as insufficient, and < 25nmol/L as deficient, respectively. The reported prevalence of low levels of Vit D (30ng/dL) in our region ranges from 85-98%. Aim: To evaluate the Vit D status of college students in urban as well as rural population. Methods: Subjects of this study were divided into two groups. Group 1 (120 college student) recruited from Narowal. Group 2 (120 college students) registered from Lahore. 5ml blood was collected aseptically from each individual. Serum Magnesium, Calcium and Phosphate were measured by photometric method on Mindray BS-400. Intact PTH was performed by Vitros ECiQ and Vitamin D was performed by Cobas E-411analyzers. Results: Mean age of subjects in group 1 and group 2 were 19.23 +/- 1.24 years and 20.95 +/- 1.17 years respectively. The difference between our study population's mean and universally recommended value (> 75nmol/L) was statistically highly significant (p-value < 0.001). Mean Vit D level of Group 1 was 16.80 +/- 8.21 nmol/L and in group 2 was 21.43 +/- 10.13 nmol/L. The difference between the means of Group 1 and Group 2 was statistically highly significant.(p-value < 0.001.) Conclusion: An enormous difference exists between universally recommended reference intervals of vitamin D levels and the values observed in our asymptomatic population. We recommend the establishment of local vitamin D reference intervals by employing larger study population.