Kuriacose Reena, Olive Kenneth E
Department of Internal Medicine, James H. Quillen College of Medicine, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, TN 37614, USA.
South Med J. 2008 Sep;101(9):906-9. doi: 10.1097/SMJ.0b013e318181881b.
Vitamin D deficiency is increasingly being recognized as a highly prevalent and undertreated problem. This study was conducted to determine the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency/insufficiency in hospitalized adults in northeast Tennessee.
A prospective cohort study was conducted on 99 inpatients admitted to an internal medicine teaching service from July through October 2006 at a single private hospital in Johnson City, Tennessee. A single measurement of 25-hydroxyvitamin D was performed on all patients.
Of the 99 patients, 53% were vitamin D deficient or insufficient (30% deficient with a level of <20 ng/mL and 23% insufficient with a level between 20-29.9 ng/mL). The highest frequency of deficiency was in females <50 years.
Vitamin D deficiency is highly prevalent in all age groups and in both females and males in this population. Clinicians should consider measuring the vitamin D level of all inpatients on a routine basis.
