title: Prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in orthopaedic patients - A single centre study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Many recent reports demonstrated high rates of vitamin D deficiency in numerous segments of Indian population but no study has been reported so far from India, which focuses specifically on vitamin D status in orthopaedic patients. This study finds out the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in orthopaedic patients in India.
  
  
  METHODS
  Vitamin D levels of 1132 patients were measured from OPD and Emergency Department of S.N. Medical College, Agra from 1 November 2011 to 31 October 2013. Serum 25(OH) vitamin D, calcium, phosphorus, alkaline phosphatase and routine blood investigations were done. BMI and daily sun exposure were measured.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Out of 1132 patients included in our study, 732 (64.7%) were males and 400 (36.3%) females. Vitamin D deficiency (<30 ng/ml) was present in 1034 patients (91.3%); among them, 693 patients (61.2%) had vitamin D level <20 ng/ml and only 98 patients (8.7%) had sufficient levels of vitamin D. Vitamin D deficiency was more in elderly patients (61-80) than in younger patients. Among 1132 patients, 670 males (91.5%) and 364 females (91.0%) were found to have serum 25(OH) vitamin D levels <30 ng/dl cut-off for vitamin D sufficiency (p-value = 0.75). Vitamin D levels were lower in patients with less mean sun exposure time. BMI level was more in deficient group than the sufficient group relatively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  High incidence of vitamin D insufficiency and deficiency likely exists across all age groups among orthopaedic patients. Screening and treating hypovitaminosis D appears to be important in this patient population.
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopaedics, S.N. Medical College, Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India.
authors.forename: C P
authors.initials: CP
authors.lastname: Pal
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, S.N. Medical College, Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India.
authors.forename: Harendra
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopaedics, K.G. Medical College, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India.
authors.forename: Deepak
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopaedics, S.N. Medical College, Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India.
authors.forename: Vivek
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Mittal
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopaedics, S.N. Medical College, Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India.
authors.forename: Gaurav
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Deshwar
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopaedics, S.N. Medical College, Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India.
authors.forename: Danish
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Altaf
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopaedics, S.N. Medical College, Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India.
authors.forename: Sushant
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Verma
keywords: BMI; India; Orthopaedic patients; Prevalence; Vitamin D deficiency