Bone Abstracts

Introduction: Vitamin D is essential for calcium metabolism as well as for fracture prevention. It plays a major role in bone health. A high prevalence of inadequacy has been reported in many studies. A serum 25-hydroxy vitamin D level of 30 ng/ml (75 nmol/l) has been proposed as the minimum for adequate vitamin D nutrition. The prevalence of inadequacy in different regions of the world has not been well characterized. The aim of this study was to evaluate and propose new base line for insufficiency.

Subjects and methods: Assessment of vitamin D was performed in 13 000 Lebanese subjects. The reference ranges used in our laboratory for 25-hydroxy vitamin D were as follows: <10 ng/ml (deficiency), 10–30 ng/ml (insufficiency) and 30–100 ng/ml (sufficiency). The statistical soft ware package SPSS version 17.0 was used for statistical testing of the data.

Results: Age groups, gender and mean vitamin D serum levels will be presented. We consistently found low levels of vitamin D across all age groups in males and females.

Conclusion: A large group of patients fell into the category of insufficiency. We believe that it is important to redefine the vitamin D cut-off across all age groups. We require a new clarification systems to assess the vitamin D levels in our population. We need a new base line for insufficiency. Making the cut-off of vitamin D at 20 ng/ml will shift more than two-thirds of Lebanese population to the level of sufficiency.