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. 2021 Jan 2;21(1):3.
doi: 10.1186/s12889-020-10020-z.

Association of Vitamin D Concentrations with subjective health complaints in children and adolescents: the CASPIAN-V study

Nazli Namazi  1   2 , Mostafa Qorbani  3   4 , Gita Shafiee  2 , Mohammad Hossein Ahmadian  1 , Mohammad Esmaeil Motlagh  5 , Mehdi Ebrahimi  6 , Hamid Asayesh  7 , Roya Kelishadi  8 , Ramin Heshmat  1   9
Affiliations

Association of Vitamin D Concentrations with subjective health complaints in children and adolescents: the CASPIAN-V study

Nazli Namazi et al. BMC Public Health. .

Abstract

Background: Vitamin D deficiency (VDD) is recognized as a global pandemic. Identification, any association between VDD and subjective health complaints (SHC), can be helpful to realize critical mechanisms and improve psychological and somatic symptoms. Given few studies published on this issue and the importance of its clarification, the main objective of this study was to examine the association between VDD and the SHC in children and adolescents.

Methods: In this national cross-sectional study, 2596 Iranian children and adolescents aged 8-18 years were included. Data on SHC, anthropometric indices, physical activity, and serum levels of vitamin D were collected. Logistic regression models (crude, adjusted) were applied to examine the association between the VDD and the SHC. Statistical analysis was performed using STATA version 11. P-values< 0.05 were considered as statistically significant.

Results: Serum levels of vitamin D in approximately 70% of Iranian children and adolescents were lower than 30 ng/mL. Among the SHC, irritability (40.9%) and feeling anxiety (33.7%) were the most prevalent ones. Multiple complaints in students with the VDD was 2.5 times greater than those with sufficient vitamin D concentrations (p < 0.001). Compared to the reference group, the strongest association was found between vitamin D status and difficulties in getting to sleep (OR: 2.5, 95%CI: 1.18, 3.53, p < 0.001).

Conclusion: VDD was observed in the considerable percentage of the study population. There were no significant differences between the two gender groups. In addition, there were significant associations between vitamin D status and most of the somatic and psychological symptoms, particularly for getting to sleep. It seems national interventional programs for vitamin D supplementation or food fortifications can be helpful.

Keywords: CASPIAN; SHC; School-aged children; Vitamin D.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
The prevalence of each subjective health complaint in the study populations
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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