Urban and rural comparison of vitamin D status in Pakistani pregnant women and neonates

Abstract

We undertook a cross-sectional study in rural Jehlum and urban Karachi to evaluate the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in Pakistani pregnant women and neonates and to assess any association of serum 25(OH) vitamin D [25(OH)D] concentration with vitamin D binding protein (Gc) genotypes. Altogether, 390 women and 266 neonates were recruited from urban and rural sites, respectively. Serum 25(OH)D was measured by an immunoassay, while Gc genotypes were identified using polymerase chain reaction followed by restriction fragment length polymorphism or PCR-RFLP. One-way analysis of variance or ANOVA and linear regression were used for statistical analysis. In urban Karachi, 99.5% of women and 97.3% of neonates were vitamin D deficient (< 50 nmol/L), while 89% of women and 82% of neonates were deficient in rural Jehlum. Gc genotypes were not associated with serum 25(OH)D concentrations in both women and their neonates. We conclude that vitamin D deficiency is highly prevalent in Pakistani women and their neonates, and Gc genotypes are not associated with serum 25(OH)D concentrations.

Keywords::

• 25-Hydroxyvitamin D
• Gc genotypes
• Gc1S
• Gc2
• neonates
• Pregnant women

Financial Support

We are grateful to John Snow Inc., Islamabad for providing support for the sample collection in the rural arm of the project through a grant by USAID Pakistan for the programme Pakistan Initiative for Mothers and Newborns (PAIMAN), AKU sub-agreement Number 36098–01.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Siddiqa Perveen (Biological and Biomedical Sciences, AKU) and Didar Alam (Nutritional Research Lab, AKU) for their technical assistance.

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflict of interest.