Postpartum Vitamin-D Deficiency and its Relations with Sociodemographic Factors

Background: Deficiency of Vitamin D or 25(OH) cholecalciferol is a severe health problem worldwide. Vitamin D is essential for calcium and bone metabolism and protects against various autoimmune disorders, cardiovascular diseases, chronic infections, cancers, and infertility. It also plays a vital role in pregnancy. During pregnancy, the fetus acquires their vitamin D from their mother and r the first few months of life after delivery, particularly in breastfed infants. Deficiency of Vitamin D in infants can lead to rickets, respiratory infections, allergic diseases, heart failure.

Aims and Objective: To investigate the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in the postpartum period and to study its relation with the sociodemographic characteristics of the patients.

Materials and Methods: This was cross-sectional observational study was conducted over one year. Sociodemographic characters and serum concentrations of vitamin D in the 25(OH)D were compared.

Results: To a total of 550 patients were enrolled. The mean age of patients was 26.5 years, around 58% of patients were from the peri-urban area, maximum number of patients were primiparous. Around 90% of patients did not have any sun exposure on a regular basis. Around 59% of enrolled patients were either unbooked or had only one antenatal visit. The mean plasma concentration of 25(OH)D in postpartum patients was 27.6ng/mL. No association was found between sociodemographic factors studied and vitamin D concentration.

Conclusion: This study showed the higher prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in India's postpartum patients despite having abundant sunlight and identifies the need for supplementation of vitamin D in pregnancy and postpartum. This supplementation has to be followed routinely in hospitals in obstetric management protocol.