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Association between vitamin D deficiency and weight gain in children: A cross-sectional study.

Randa A Sultan, Raghda A Sultan, Abdulmoein Eid Al-Agha*, Areej O Mahjoub

Introduction: Obesity in children is a serious and growing health problem. Its prevalence has significantly in-creased over the past decades. Obesity is a risk factor for increased morbidity and mortality and is a multifactorial condition. Recently, studies on the association between vitamin D deficiency and obesity have been conducted. This study aimed to determine the relationship between vitamin D deficiency and weight gain in children in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Methods: This cross-sectional study included 321 healthy children (176 girls and 145 boys) from an ambu-latory pediatric clinic at King Abdul-Aziz University Hospital between November 2017 and April 2018. The anthropometric variables of each child were obtained, and blood samples were obtained to measure vitamin D, thyroid and parathyroid hormone, and calcium levels. Results: The participants included 176 (54.8%) girls and 145 (45.2%) boys with a mean age of 9.8 ± 3.8 yrs. The average body mass index was 18.01 ± 3.5 kg/m2, and the mean vitamin D level was 26.4 ± 10.6 nmol/L for both sexes. Vitamin D deficiency was identified in 96.5% of the partici-pants, and only 3.5% had normal vitamin D levels. A significant association was observed between body weight and vitamin D deficiency (P value=0.013 and Pearson correlation coefficient=-0.2). The results showed an inverse relationship between vitamin D deficiency and body weight, i.e., any decrease in vitamin D levels inversely affected body weight. Conclusion: Vitamin D deficiency was inversely associated with weight gain in children.