Prevalence of low vitamin d levels in newly diagnosed hiv patients

Introduction: Vitamin D is essential for calcium homeostasis and bone metabolism. Vitamin D deficiency is associated with a number of comorbidities. There was disbelief that Vitamin D deficiency is uncommon in India. However from the data available in the published literature, Vitamin D deficiency is very common in India in all the age groups and both sexes across the country. Recently, low vitamin D levels have been associated with HIV disease progression and HIV related complications. Therefore, the role of vitamin D in preventing or mitigating these complications of HIV is of particular interest. We studied prevalence of low Vitamin D in newly diagnosed HIV positive patients and compared it with normal population in southern Rajasthan. Methodology: It was a prospective case control study conducted from Jan 2016 to Dec 16. This study includes newly diagnosed HIV patients who were registered under ART centre at our institute were taken as cases and controls were normal individual without premorbidities. Result: In case group 78% patient were vitamin D deficient, 12% were vitamin D insufficient and only 10% were vitamin D sufficient, whereas in control group 48% patient were vitamin D deficient, 18% were vitamin D insufficient and 34% were vitamin D sufficient. There is significant (p=.005) difference between prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in these two groups. There is weak but significant correlation (correlation coefficient=.336) between vitamin D and CD4 cell count. Increased CD4 cell count is seen in patient with sufficient vitamin D level. Conclusion: The study has shown that, as compared to the general population, the HIV population seems to be more susceptible to Vitamin D deficiency and to its adverse effects, so all HIV positive patients should be prescribed Vitamin D supplements.