Introduction: Vitamin D deficiency leads to numerous skeletal disorders including rickets in children and Osteomalcia in adults. Extra-skeletal effects have been linked to development of osteoporosis, cardio-vascular disorders, hypertension, diabetes, autoimmune disorders and cancers, so it is of paramount importance to diagnose Vitamin D deficiency at earliest to prevent development of various disorders at a later age. We evaluated the prevalence of Vitamin D deficiency in younger females who presented with low back pain and its causal association with duration of low back pain.
Methods and Material: A total of 394 patients between the agesof 18- 30 years who presented with back pain were enrolled. Patient with known cause of back pain like lysthesis, sciatica, prolapse intervertebral disc were excluded. 237 patients with non-specific low back pain were finally recruited and subjected to 25 OH Vit D level measurement by chemiluminescence immunoassay method. Patients were further divided into two categories, Group 1 patients having low back pain lasting less than 4 weeks and Group 2 patients having low back pain lasting more than four weeks.
Results: Out of 237 patients,only 26.5%(n=63) patients were found to be having optimal level of Vitamin D, however there was no association between low back pain and Vitamin D deficiency and neither with the duration of low back pain.
Conclusion: We observed young females with high prevalence of Vitamin D deficiency, it further adds up to the existing data and warrants vital steps like awareness program to educate youth regarding Vitamin D deficiency along with implementing effective prevention strategies like food fortification and supplementation.