Prevalence of hypovitaminosis D in severely obese subjects referred to bariatric surgery

Abstract

Study Design: Cross-sectional. Objective: Estimating the prevalence of hypovitaminosis D in a group of severely obese subjects referred to bariatric surgery. Methods: This study evaluated severely obese patients aged ≥18 years assisted by a specialized team in bariatric surgery. Clinical, anthropometric, and laboratory data were obtained from patient records. Plasma 25 (OH) D was determined by chemiluminescence and levels ≤ 20 ng/mL was considered as Hypovitaminosis D. The data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences® (SPSS) 20.0. Variables were described using descriptive statistics. For the comparison of the three groups, ANOVA, Kruskal-Wallis, and Pearson's chi-square tests were used. Spearman correlation test was performed to assess correlations between 25(OH)D and the other variables. P-values <0.05 were considered to be significant. Results: The study included 400 individuals, 71% were female with the mean age (SD) and BMI (SD) of 35.6 (9.1) years and 41.4 (5.1) kg/m², respectively. The vitamin D ranged from 4.5 to 62.4 ng/mL and the mean (SD) was 24.7 (7.9) ng/mL. In this sample, 117 (29.3%) individuals had hypovitaminosis D. There was a negative correlation between 25(OH)D and BMI (r= -0.110; p=0.028) and parathormone (r= -0.152; p=0.006) and positive correlation with serum calcium (r= 0.132; p=0.013) and phosphorus (r= 0.116; p=0.027). Conclusion: Severely obese subjects had a high prevalence of hypovitaminosis D even living in a sunny state.