Outcomes of Vitamin D Deficiency among Women in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Introduction: Although sun exposure is considered a major source of vitamin D, the prevalence of its deficiency is paradoxically much higher in countries with sunny climates, such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, and Jordan. This discrepancy has been attributed to cultures and traditions that may limit exposure to the sun in these countries. Hence, this review aimed to investigate the magnitude of vitamin D deficiency among Saudi women.
Methods: An online database were searched to identify articles related to vitamin D deficiency among women in Saudi Arabia. Articles that addressed the problem among children or the male population were excluded. The resulting articles were reviewed by 3 independent reviewers to ensure their eligibility and further exclusion of ineligible articles. The data regarding vitamin D deficiency were excluded from this review. The extracted data were synthesized in the form of a narrative review. The results were discussed in the following section.
Results: A total of 12 studies were eligible in this review, as they discussed vitamin D deficiency among women. The high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been well-established in several subpopulations. Vitamin D deficiency may result from one and/or more of the following including decreased cutaneous synthesis, decreased dietary intake, impaired hepatic and/or renal activation, or resistance to vitamin D action. Vitamin D level was not influenced by lifestyles, dietary habits, education level, or household income. However, none of the predictors was significant enough to predict serum Vit D level. These results suggest that Vit D deficiency is common even in very sunny areas emphasizing the importance of screening for Vit D deficiency in these populations.
Conclusions: Vitamin D deficiency in Saudi women is further impacted during pregnancy itself, with a noted deteriorating vitamin D status, which may arise in part due to the increased nutritional demands of the growing fetus. This decline in vitamin D levels is also common in Arab Gulf countries, where many mothers about half of their neonates, at the time of delivery, have sub-optimal serum levels of 25(OH)D, highlighting that in Saudi Arabia the answer may be more complicated than sunlight exposure alone.