Socioeconomic Determinants of Vitamin D Status inWomen

Background: vitamin d deficiency can adversely affect women’s health and their offspring. studies have uncovered many determinants of vitamin d; however, few have explored its relationship with socioeconomic status. objectives: we aimed to determine the serum 25(oh)d level and its relationship with socioeconomic status. methods: we recruited 182 women between the ages of 18 years to 65 years from eastern nepal from a previous study. sociodemographic variables were obtained from a semi-structured questionnaire and used to construct separate and aggregate indicators of socioeconomic status. the association of these indicators with vitamin d status was examined. we used serum 25(oh)d levels as a measure of vitamin d status and classified them as deficient (< 20 ng/ml), insufficient (20 - 29 ng/ml), and sufficient (30 - 100 ng/ml). results: median serum 25(oh)d was 18.6 ng/ml (25th - 75th percentile 14.3 - 23.9). out of the total participants, 103 (56.5%) had serum 25(oh)d < 20 ng/ml, 61 (33.5%) had 20 - 29 ng/ml, and 18 (9.9%) had ≥ 30 ng/ml. the association between vitamin d status and socioeconomic indicators was assessed using the chi-square test or fischer’s exact test. significant associations were found with total household income/month (p = 0.006), and income to poverty ratio (p = 0.005). conclusions: women living in low-income houses and poverty have a higher prevalence of vitamin d deficiency.