Low Vitamin D Levels in Patients with Irritable Bowel Syndrome of a Tertiary Care Hospital: A Descriptive Cross-sectional Study.

Introduction: Vitamin D deficiency is one of the common disorders prevalent among both developed and developing countries. Irritable Bowel Syndrome has been linked to many diseases and conditions, one of them being Vitamin D deficiency. To the best of our knowledge, no study of vitamin D deficiency status has been done yet in Nepalese setup. This study aims to find out the prevalence of low levels of Vitamin D in patients with Irritable Bowel Syndrome attending the outpatient department of a tertiary care hospital. Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in patients with Irritable Bowel Syndrome attending the outpatient department of a tertiary care hospital in Kathmandu, Nepal between November 2020 and July 2021. Ethical approval was taken from the Institutional Review Committee of Nepal Medical College and Teaching Hospital (Ref No: 027-077/078). Convenient sampling was done. The collected data was entered and analyzed in Microsoft Excel. Point estimate at 95% Confidence Interval was calculated along with frequency and proportion for binary data. Results: Out of a total of 71 patients with Irritable Bowel Syndrome, the prevalence of low levels of vitamin D was 44 (61.97%) (95% Confidence Interval= 50.67-73.26). Out of the patients with low vitamin levels, insufficiency was seen in 23 (52.27%) and deficiency was seen in 21 (47.72%). Conclusions: Our study found the prevalence of low Vitamin D levels among patients with Irritable Bowel Syndrome to be lower when compared to other studies.