title: Awareness regarding the importance of calcium and vitamin D among the undergraduate pharmacy students in Bangladesh.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Calcium and vitamin D are two important micronutrients required for maintaining proper bone health. Previous works intended to determine the status of these micronutrients in local population have reported that the people in Bangladesh are at high risk of calcium insufficiency and hypovitaminosis D related health complications. Lack of awareness and insufficient knowledge of the essentiality of these two nutrients are assumed to cause this problem in Bangladesh. The present study was designed and conducted to establish a basic understanding on the level of gap of knowledge and awareness among pharmacy students at undergraduate level in Bangladesh.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 713 students of Bachelor of Pharmacy course participated in the study. The students were asked about basic idea related to calcium and vitamin D and the disorders due to their deficiency, name of common foods containing calcium and vitamin D, their perception regarding the essentiality of the said nutrients etc. It was found that most of the students were familiar with the importance of calcium (98.9%) and vitamin D (99.3%) in bone health. 82.2% students know about the term osteoporosis. Unfortunately, 10.7% and 18.8% students failed to mention at least one food that is rich in calcium and vitamin D, respectively. Most of the students got familiar about the nutrients from their teachers (48.9%) and textbooks (32.8%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Being a student of pharmacy, the students should have more comprehensive knowledge about calcium and vitamin D. The present study indicates that the pharmacy students have lack of knowledge about calcium and vitamin D and thus it can be clearly predicted that the condition of general people may be worse.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacy, Stamford University Bangladesh, 51 Siddeswari Road, Dhaka 1217, Bangladesh. kp_ruddin@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Riaz
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Uddin
authors.forename: Naz Hasan
authors.initials: NH
authors.lastname: Huda
authors.forename: Yeakuty Marzan
authors.initials: YM
authors.lastname: Jhanker
authors.forename: Tasbira
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Jesmeen
authors.forename: Mohammad Zafar
authors.initials: MZ
authors.lastname: Imam
authors.forename: Saleha
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Akter
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001459:Bangladesh; D002118:Calcium / Q000172:deficiency / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D004512:Education, Pharmacy / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012737:Sex Factors; D013339:Students, Pharmacy; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014807:Vitamin D / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D014808:Vitamin D Deficiency / Q000175:diagnosis; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D014807:Vitamin D; D002118:Calcium
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