Awareness of vitamin D deficiency among at-risk patients

Esubalew Alemu esubalew@doctors.org.uk
Robert Varnam robert@varnam.org.uk
BMC Research Notes 2012, 5:17 doi: Published: 9 January 2012

Vitamin D deficiency is a significant problem for a growing proportion of the UK population.
Individuals with dark or covered skin are at particularly high risk due to ethno-cultural, environmental and genetic factors.
We assessed the level of awareness of vitamin D deficiency among at-risk patients in order to identify groups most in need of education.

Findings A cross-sectional survey using a piloted questionnaire was conducted among consecutive at-risk patients without a diagnosis of Vitamin D deficiency arriving at a large inner city general practice in the North West of England over a five day period.

The survey was completed by 221 patients. The mean age was 35 years. 28% of them (n = 61) had never heard about vitamin D.

• Older patients (p = 0.003) were less likely to have heard about vitamin D.
• 54% of participants were unaware of the commonest symptoms of vitamin D deficiency.
• 34% did not expose their skin other than their face in the last one year, and
• 11% did not include vitamin D rich foods in their diet.

Conclusion: The majority of at-risk patients are aware of vitamin D; nevertheless, there is a significant lack of knowledge among older people, who have higher morbidity.
A programme of targeted education of the at-risk population is recommended.

Provisional PDF is attached at bottom of this page

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Note: This study just considered the first at-risk category Dark Skin

Additional at-risk groups include Dark Skin and pregnant, Pregnant   Elderly, Obese,

and about a dozen more - who are typically not visually discernable (MS, HIV, gut problems, kidney failure, liver failure, etc)

See also VitaminDWiki

• Overview of Vitamin D Deficiency
• Overview Dark Skin and Vitamin D
• All items in Far from Equator 124 items
• Disadvantaged get less sun and have poor health in the North– Aug 2011
• UK survey of vitamin D knowledge of midwives - 2011
  • Amazing that only 50% of the midwives and home visitors were aware that dark skin was an issue
• Vitamin D insufficiency in UK youths – 37X more likely if dark skin – July 2011
• Survey finds that Non-Caucasians do not feel that people need sun exposure – July 2012