Vitamin D status of pregnant women and their infants in South India: VIPIS study

Authors

  • Preethi Navaneethan Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Unit III, Christian Medical College Hospital, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India
  • Thenmozhi Mani Department of Biostatistics, Christian Medical College Hospital, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India
  • Pradita Shrestha Department of Neonatology, Christian Medical College Hospital, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India
  • Annie Regi Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Unit III, Christian Medical College Hospital, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India
  • Niranjan Thomas Department of Neonatology, Christian Medical College Hospital, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India
  • Anna Simon Department of Paediatrics, Unit I, Christian Medical College Hospital, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18203/2320-1770.ijrcog20193049

Keywords:

Infants, Hypovitaminosis, Prevalence, Pregnancy, South India, Vitamin D

Abstract

Background: Aim was to estimate the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in pregnant women and their infants and to analyse the effect of maternal vitamin D deficiency on the infant.

Methods: A prospective study was done in the Department of Obstetrics and Neonatology in a tertiary centre in South India with 150 women seen in the antenatal clinic after 36 weeks of pregnancy were recruited. Serum vitamin D levels were obtained. Babies were followed up and sampled once between 10 and 20 weeks of age for vitamin D, calcium, phosphate and alkaline phosphatase. Vitamin D levels less than 20 ng/ml was considered as deficiency. Analysis of the data was done using SPSS 16.0 version.

Results: Vitamin D deficiency was seen in 64.8% of the pregnant women. Follow up of 76 babies showed vitamin D deficiency in 72.6% infants. Significantly high levels of alkaline phosphatase were noted in infants who were born to mothers with vitamin D deficiency, which indicates risk of developing bone disease.

Conclusions: This study highlights the high prevalence of Vitamin D deficiency in pregnant women and their infants in South India in a region with abundant sunshine. This study also emphasises treating vitamin D deficiency in pregnancy to reduce the risk of developing rickets in infancy.

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Published

2019-06-29

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Original Research Articles