Journal of Pregnancy and Child Health
Open Access

Research Article

Risk Factors for Maternal Vitamin D Deficiency within the United Arab Emirates

Hussein Izzeldin¹, Zainab Taha², Tewfik Ihab³, Badawi Salah⁴, Siddieg Hisham⁵, Adegoye Amanda⁶ and McGrady Kyle^6*

¹Institute of Brain Chemistry and Human Nutrition, UK

²Zayed University College of Natural and Health Sciences, Abu Dhabi, UAE

³Department of Human and Health Sciences, University of Westminster, UAE

⁴National Project for control of Diabetes Coordinator, National IDD Control Program, Ministry of Health, UAE

⁵Rashid Centre for Diabetes and Research, Ministry of Health, UAE

⁶Faculty of Science and Technology, Department of Life Sciences Human Food, Nutrition and Public Health Division, University of Westminster, London, UK

*Corresponding Author:

McGrady Kyle
Faculty of Science and Technology
Department of Life Sciences Human Food, Nutrition and Public Health Division
University of Westminster, London, UK
Tel: 19788182002
E-mail: Kyle.jd.mcg@gmail.com

Received Date: August 31, 2016; Accepted Date: September 26, 2016; Published Date: September 30, 2016

Citation: Izzeldin H, Taha Z, Ihab T, Salah B, Hisham S, et al. (2016) Risk Factors for Maternal Vitamin D Deficiency within the United Arab Emirates. J Preg Child Health 3: 276. doi:10.4172/2376-127X.1000276

Copyright: © 2016 Izzeldin H, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Introduction: Vitamin D deficiency during pregnancy is a public health problem and it has been associated with negative pregnancy outcomes for both mothers and infants. Aim: To estimate the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in pregnant women in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and to identify the contribution of risk factors to the 25(OH)D levels. Methods: It is a cross-sectional study in which vitamin D levels of 1088 adult pregnant women were assessed. Information on vitamin D intake was available in a sub-sample of 266 women. Results: The mean serum 25(OH)D was 26.2 nmol/L (95% CI 25.2-27.1 range 5-129.1 nmol/L) with 69% of women being vitamin D deficient (<30 nmol/L). In the bivariate analysis, showed that no predictors could have been indicated as no values exceeded significance (p<0.2). Stepwise multiple linear regression analysis could not be applied to identify predictors of vitamin D levels as no values exceeded p=0.2. Conclusion: Due to the high prevalence of vitamin deficiency in UAE, there is an urge for interventions focusing on supplementation, fortification and diet diversity for preventing health consequences during a critical period of development.

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