Assessment of vitamin D and vitamin A intake by female students at the United Arab Emirates University based on self-reported dietary and selected fortified food consumption

Abstract

In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), many adolescent girls and women (especially the UAE citizens) are not adequately exposed to sunlight and their dietary intake of vitamin D is insufficient to fulfill the required recommended daily allowance of the vitamin. In the present study, the problem of vitamin D and vitamin A insufficiency in female students of UAE University was investigated through a dietary intake assessment of the vitamins. Results indicated that over 70% of female students constituting the survey population did not consume enough milk and other vitamin-D-rich foods, and many showed poor food habits. Prevalence of vitamin D insufficiency among the population studied indicated that 37% of the total population was considered vitamin D insufficient and 40% of the female students residing in the hostels also had vitamin D insufficiency ( < 5 μg/day) based on self-reported dietary and selected fortified food consumption.

Keywords::

• Vitamin D insufficiency
• self-reported food intake
• diet analysis plus
• female students
• United Arab Emirates

Acknowledgements

A special appreciation and acknowledgment goes to Mr Stewart John Brooker, English Lecturer at UAE University, for proofreading this manuscript.

Declarations of interest: The investigator would like to express his sincere appreciation to the Research Affairs at the United Arab Emirates University for the financial support of this project under grant number 01-02-6-11/05. The investigator would like to express his gratitude to Al Ain Dairy in providing some dairy product samples and to United Foods Company in providing some oil samples.