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September 15-16, 2017 | Dallas, USA
International Conference on
VITAMINS, NUTRIGENOMICS & MALNUTRITION
Insights Nutr Metab 2017
Volume 1 Issue 1
T
he prevalence of vitamin D deficiency viz. having serum 25(OH)
D concentrations less than 75 nmol/mL is a common phenomenon
worldwide. This study has been undertaken keeping in mind that the
previous studies done and published were more general in nature. The
aim of this study has been to be more accurate with respect to clearly
defining the variables for example children are now clearly categorized by a
combination of multiple variables together (age, gender, nationality). In the
previous studies, the analysis was done separately for each variable. The
data presented in this paper is specifically of the juvenile population living
in the United Arab Emirates i.e., residents aged less than 18 years. Data
showed highest prevalence of severe vitamin D deficiency (< 25 nmol/L) in
two groups of UAE female teenagers viz. age groups of 13–15 years and
16-18 years old. Considering nationality and the age in correspondence
analysis, the optimum level of vitamin D (75-200 nmol/L) is found in babies
between the ages of 1-3 years irrespective of their nationality. In the juvenile
population, the study shows an inverse correlation between age variable
and serum 25(OH)D levels variable (with an increase in age, the level of
vitamin D decreases). Irrespective of the nationality, the highest incidence
of insufficient level of vitamin D (50-74 nmol/L) was found in children aged
between 4 and 6 years. On the other hand, optimum levels of vitamin D
(75-200 nmol/L) were found in males irrespective of their nationality. For
predicting the level of 25(OH)D (p<0.01) in children; variable ‘age’ is the
most important factor followed by the variable ‘gender’ for children up to
the age of 12 years and variable ‘nationality’ for children between the age of
12-18 years. These startling data warrant further studies leading to drafting
a national policy to overcome this epidemic of vitamin D deficiency among
juveniles in the United Arab Emirates. We speculate that similar data exists
in other GULF countries.
Speaker Biography
Afrozul Haq is working as a Director of Research & Development at Gulf Diagnostic
Center Hospital (GDCH), Abu Dhabi, UAE. He is the pioneer of Vitamin D research
and testing in the UAE and serving as the Founding President and Chairman of the
International Conference on Vitamin D Deficiency, Nutrition and Human Health
continuously conducted for the last 6 years at Abu Dhabi, UAE. He is a graduate of
Aligarh Muslim University, India and started his professional career from All India
Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi in 1984. He has more than 35 years
of experience as a Basic & Clinical Research Scientist working in a number of research
labs, and hospitals around the world including Pasteur Institute, Paris, France; McGill
University, Montreal, Canada; King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Centre, Riyadh,
Saudi Arabia, Mafraq Hospital, Sheikh Khalifa Medical City, VPS Healthcare, Abu Dhabi,
UAE. He is serving as Guest Editor for the
Journal of Steroid Biochemistry and Molecular
Biology
for the last 2 years and Editor-in-Chief, Editorial Board Member and Advisor
for several international journals in the field of Medical Research and Health Sciences.
e:
haq2000@gmail.comPrevalence of vitamin D deficiency in children from 136 countries, living in the United Arab Emirates
Afrozul Haq
1
, Jitka Svobodová
2
and
Andrea Jindrová
2
1
Gulf Diagnostic Center Hospital, UAE
2
Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Czech Republic