WORLD JOURNAL OF ADVANCE
HEALTHCARE RESEARCH

*Sarah Ali Abdul Hussein and Prof. Dr. Basil OM Saleh

ABSTRACT

Background: Obesity is one of the greatest non-communicable diseases worldwide. It affects every age, gender, race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic class. It is a major risk factor for many chronic conditions. A major health issue linked with vitamin D is the growing obesity rate. Adverse dietary habits are common in obesity, which could lead to a lower intake of vitamin D. Many studies report changes in vitamin D status with body mass index changes. Aim of study: Evaluation of the relationship of total serum 25(OH) vitamin D level with obesity or overweight of different severity in Iraqi apparently healthy subjects. Methods: A cross sectional study was carried out at University of Baghdad. It included 82 subjects of both sexes who attended Obesity Center and Nutrition Clinic at Al-Imam Al-Sadiq Hospital for weight regimen, Babylon Governorate, Iraq, during the period from July 2020 to December 2020. It included 82 apparently healthy adult individuals who were not suffering from any acute or chronic illness. Body mass index and vitamin D level were measured. Results: In this study, 31.7% of study participants were overweight and 53.7% of them had high waist circumference. Mean of (25OH) vitamin D level was significantly lower in participants who had obesity class II and III than that in other participants and significantly lower in participants with high waist circumference than that in those with normal waist circumference. Statistically significant moderate negative correlation was detected between (25OH) vitamin D level and BMI and statistically significant weak negative correlation was detected between (25OH) vitamin D level and waist circumference. Conclusion: This study revealed that obesity had significant effect on serum levels of total 25-hydroxyvitamin D, but without significant relation to gender. The majority of enrolled apparently healthy subjects were suffering from vitamin D insufficiency or deficiency.