Prevalence & potential significance of vitamin D deficiency in Asian Indians

Studies from our center and other parts of India have drawn attention towards wide prevalence of vitamin D deficiency (VDD) in our country. VDD has been reported in all age groups including toddlers, school children, pregnant women and their neonates and adult males and females residing in rural and urban India. We reviewed implications of VDD in our population based on the preliminary data available from Indian studies on skeletal health. Besides, a brief review is made on the importance of VDD in various other disorders prevalent in equivalent proportions among Indians such as type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM), cardiovascular diseases (CVD), immune competence including relation to tuberculosis, malignancy and osteoarthritis. Data from the West have also associated VDD with increased prevalence of type 2DM, CVD, autoimmune disorders, tuberculosis, prostate, breast and colon malignancy and osteoarthritis. Such association has not been studied to date in our country. Overall results of various studies conducted to date in urban and rural Indians indicate that widely prevalent VDD is functionally relevant to skeletal health including osteomalacia and rickets. However, there is a need to explore its association with osteoporosis related fractures and various other non skeletal disorders linked with VDD.