Impact of vitamin D status on cardiometabolic complications among children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes mellitus

Objective: there is an ongoing interest in the relationship between vitamin d status and diabetes control and complications. however,data from saudi arabia are limited. to determine the impact of vitamin d status on glycemic control and cardiometabolic complications of children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes mellitus (t1dm) attending a tertiary care diabetes clinic in saudi arabia. methods: demographic,clinical,and laboratory data of 301 children and adolescent subjects with t1dm (53.5% females) of a mean age of 13.9 years attending king abdulaziz medical city-jeddah during 2010-2013 were retrospectively collected. relationships between vitamin d status and frequency of hypoglycemia,hemoglobin a1c (hba1c) level,body mass index (bmi),blood pressure,and lipid profile were evaluated. results: the mean duration of diabetes was 7.7±3.7 years. mean bmi value was 21.1±4.5 kg/m2 and hba1c was 9.6±1.9% in both genders. only 26.2% of the patients had a satisfactory hba1c level. the mean level of 25-hydroxyvitamin d [25(oh)d] was 35.15 and that of cholesterol was 4.75. vitamin d deficiency [25(oh)d≤37.5 nmol/l] was detected in 63.6% of the male and 67.7% of the female subjects. in males,it was inversely associated with frequency of hypoglycemia (p<0.01),bmi (p<0.05),diastolic blood pressure (p<0.05),and triglyceride levels (p<0.01),while in females,it was inversely associated with current age (p<0.05),age at diagnosis (p<0.01),and triglyceride levels (p<0.01). no significant correlation between hba1c and vitamin d deficiency was observed. conclusion: vitamin d deficiency was highly prevalent in our study sample and was found to be associated with frequency of hypoglycemic episodes and with adverse cardiometabolic control. © 2016,journal of clinical research in pediatric endocrinology,published by galenos publishing.