Abstract:
Background: Adequate serum vitamin D levels in children has been proven to improve bone health, reduce the risk of type 1 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and many other diseases in life. The serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D is the best biomarker in measuring vitamin D status in the body. It is able to reflect both vitamin D levels that the body receive from sunlight and dietary sources. Little is known about the vitamin D status of the population in Ghana especially among school age child.
Aim: To determine the vitamin D status of school age children between 8-12 years.
Methods: A cross-sectional study design was used in this study. Ninety-nine (99) participants were recruited from four (2 public and 2 private) schools in the Ledzokuku/Krowor constituency using the stratified and systematic random sampling. A structured interviewer administered questionnaire was used to collect their socio-demographic data. Participant’s dietary intakes, length of sunlight exposure and anthropometric measurement were also measured. Serum vitamin D levels were determined using an ELISA test kit. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) Version 20.0 was used to analyze the data obtained. Chi-square test was used to determine the association between the categorical variables while independent t-test was used to find the mean differences between the vitamin D status of the school groups and gender. Statistical significance was set as p<0.05.
Results: There was significant association between dietary vitamin D intakes and serum vitamin D levels of the respondents (p = 0.008). School children had very low sunlight exposure. Thirty-three (33%) spent <15mins/day in the sun everyday and 36% exposed themselves to sunlight during the hours of 10am-12:59 pm. Majority (73%) of the school children exposed themselves to sunlight for more than 3 days. Almost half (49%) of the participants had deficient vitamin D levels with majority (75%) reporting from the public schools.There was no significant association between anthropometric measurement (BMI- for-age) and vitamin D status. Males were 1.35 times more likely to be vitamin D sufficient compared to females. Public school children were 0.07 times less likely to be vitamin D sufficient compared to their counterparts in private schools.
Conclusion: Majority of the school children had low dietary intakes of vitamin D rich foods. Also, the school children had a low length of sunlight exposure. The results from this study shows relatively low levels of serum vitamin D in 8-12 year old Ghanaian school age children and this could be as a result of low dietary intakes of vitamin D and low sunlight exposure. More of the school children in the public schools had deficient levels of vitamin D, compared to the private school children. Furthermore, there was no observed association between serum vitamin D status and anthropometric measurement.
