Vitamin D levels in Children with Recurrent Wheezing: An Observational Study

Abstract Aim: To study the vitamin D levels in toddlers with recurrent wheezing.Methods: In this prospective observational study, 108 children aged 1-3 years with recurrent wheezing and 41 healthy age and sex matched controls were included. The clinical, demographic, socio-economic, food habits, and sun exposure of both the groups were assessed. The serum levels of vitamin D were measured and Asthma predictive index (API) of all the cases was calculated. Spearman or Pearson correlation coefficients were used to see relationship of different variables with Vitamin D.Results: Among 108 cases and 41 controls we enrolled, majority of them had vitamin D deficiency or insufficiency. The difference in vitamin D levels in the two groups was not statistically significant (p=0.0619). We found no significant difference in the vitamin D levels between, urban and rural population, vegetarians and non-vegetarians, adequately and inadequately sun light exposed children. There was also no correlation between the vitamin D levels and the number of wheezing episodes in the last 1 year. There was no significant correlation between the number of criteria of API positive and the vitamin D levels.Conclusion: Our study showed that the overall prevalence of vitamin D deficiency is very high among toddlers with recurrent wheezing. We conclude that vitamin D rich diet and sunlight exposure cannot prevent vitamin D deficiency in Indian toddlers. National programme for universal supplementation of vitamin D is required to control this epidemic of vitamin D deficiency.