European Journal of Molecular & Clinical Medicine

Study title:  A retrospective study on impact of covid pandemic on vitamin D levels in children aged 6 months to 12 yearsin post covid era
Aims: To determine the severity of deficiency and the presenting features
Introduction: Vitamin D insufficiency affects almost 50% of the population worldwide. An estimated 1 billion people worldwide, across all ethnicities and age groups, have a vitamin D deficiency (VDD). This pandemic of hypovitaminosis D can mainly be attributed to lifestyle and environmental factors that reduce exposure to sunlight, which is required for ultraviolet-B (UVB)-induced vitamin D production in the skin. The high prevalence of vitamin D insufficiency is a particularly important public health issue because hypovitaminosis D is an independent risk factor for total mortality in the general population. Many health care providers have increased their recommendations for vitamin D supplementation to at least 1000 IU.
 
Methodology: this study was done over a span of 10 months from September 2021 to July 2022
This was a retrospective descriptive study in which data were recorded for all patients aged from 6 months to 12 years of age with features suggestive of vitamin D deficiency seen in Dr DY Patil Medical College and Hospital, Pune for a period of 10 months
The Health Research and ethics committee of Dr DY Patil Medical College and Hospital, Pune approved the study and waived the requirement for the informed consent. A total of 69 patients were included in this study.
Results: 69 patients were included in the study out of which 39 were males { 56.52%} and 30 were females { 43.48%} . the main presenting feature was bowing of legs { 31.9%} followed by difficulty in walking in 15.9%
Out of 69 children 53 had severe deficiency, 13 had mild to moderate deficiency and 3 had optimum levels of vitamin D.
28 children belonged to the age group of 1-5 years followed by 18 children in age group of 5-10 years and 11 children in age group less than 1 year and 10-15 years
Out of the entire study group 56 children had bony deformities and 13 had neurodevelopmental presentation
Conclusion:  the above results emphasise the fact that due to covid most of the children were restricted to stay indoors for several months leading to vitamin D deficiency in them. it also emphasis the fact that regular screening of children should be done with respect to vitamin D levels and also other micronutrients and children should be encouraged to have some amount of sun exposure to get natural supplementation of vitamin D and also be supplemented at desired intervals so that they adequate amount of vitamin D levels.

A considerable number of studies have suggested that there is a strong correlation between 25-hydroxyvitamin D or vitamin D levels and overall health, with reported impacts ranging from mental health and vital organ health to musculoskeletal health. Our study's objective is to assess vitamin D deficiency in individuals of all ages and sexes with a particular emphasis on low levels of vitamin D-3 (30), which can help to prevent severe vitamin D shortage in light of the growing public health concern

Background: To determine the impact of vitamin D status on the susceptibility and severity of pneumonia in children of age 1 month to 5 years.
Materials and Methods: This case control study was conducted from September 2020 to September2022 in children admitted to Pediatric Care Intensive Unit (PICU) Mamata Academy of Medical Sciences Hospital.Out of total 150 study participants, 75 children with new onset pneumonia were taken as cases and 75 healthy children who were matched for age and sex were taken as controls. All children with pneumonia were admitted and categorized  according to Revised WHO (2014) guidelines .Serum vitamin D levels were sent. As per recent Indian Academy of Pediatrics (IAP) recommendations, Serum Vitamin D levels < 12ng/dl were taken as deficient levels, 12-20ng/dl as insufficient levels and > 20ng/dl as sufficiency level¹.
Results: Our study showed a correlation between hypovitaminosis D and pneumonia. We found that hypovitaminosis D was significantly associated with pneumonia compared to healthy controls and we also found that all cases with severe pneumonia had significantly lower vitamin D levels than healthy controls.
Conclusions: In our study, we conclude children with lower vitamin D levels are at increased risk for acquiring pneumonia and also are at increased risk of developing severe pneumonia. We conclude to consider vitamin D supplementation in children younger than 5 years to reduce the risk of acquiring pneumonia, although larger RCTs are required to support this