hypovitaminosis d in adults living in a sunny city: relation to some cardiometabolic risk factors, national food and nutrition surveillance

Background and objectives: reports indicate that hypovitaminosis d is extremely common worldwide and is reemerging as a major health problem globally. in the present study, the main objectives were: 1) to examine whether healthy men and women living in ahvaz have adequate vitamin d status; 2) to assess association between vitamin d status and some cardiometabolic risk factors. materials and methods: this was a cross-sectional study which was part of the national food and nutrition surveillance (nfns). a total of 235 apparently healthy women and men aged 20-60 met the inclusion criteria from the city of ahvaz (latitude 31.3°n, 48.6°e). anthropometric measurements including weight and height were taken. serum 25- hydroxyvitamin d (25(oh)d) concentrations and lipid profile including triglycerides, total cholesterol, ldl-c and hdlc were evaluated. results: mean circulating 25(oh)d concentration was 25.4±12.7 nmol/l, with significant difference between men and women (p=0.015). only 6 % of the participants had sufficient levels of vitamin d (25(oh)d ≥ 50 nmol/l). results of logistic regression analyses after controlling for gender showed that subjects with hypovitaminosis d were almost 4.38 times more likely to be overweight/obese compared with subjects with vitamin d sufficiency (or:4.38, p:0.011). there was no significant association between serum 25(oh)d concentration and the lipid profile components. conclusions: we found high prevalence of hypovitaminosis d in apparently healthy adults in ahvaz, a sunny city of iran. our findings suggest that high vitamin d concentrations among the adult population are associated with a substantial decrease in body mass index. however, there was no association with the lipid profile components.