Vitamin D level as a predictor of pneumonia and asthma in children less than 5 years of age

ABSTRACT

Background: Childhood pneumonia is a global health problem .It the leading cause of death for children under the age of five years. 95% of all pneumonia cases under the age of five occurs in developing countries. Asthma remains the most common chronic disease of childhood in the world. The observation that vitamin D deficiency and asthma share risk factors such as urban residence, obesity and African American ethnicity has generated interest in exploring a link between these two conditions. This study was taken up to assess the role of vitamin D as a predictor of pneumonia and asthma in children less than 5 years of age.Methods: A prospective observational case control study was conducted in MLB Medical college, Jhansi from January 2015 to December 2016 (1 year 11 months). A total of 60 children including 30 asthma cases, 20 pneumonia cases and 10 controls, aged, 6-60 months were enrolled. Controls were healthy children attending outpatient services for immunization.Results: The mean age of the pneumonia patient was 1.5 years, while mean age in asthma patients was 3.1yrs. Ratio of male and female in pneumonia cases was1.51, while is asthma ratio was 21. In our study 45% pneumonia cases had deficient level of vitamin D (<20ng/ml) and mean level was 11.08±4.68 while 40% of control had deficient level of vitamin D and mean level was 16.04±1.61, p value was 0.0166 and there was significant difference in both the groups. In Asthma cases 53.33% patient had deficient level of vitamin-D and mean level was 10.62±2.908 as compared to 40% control (mean 16.04±1.62) ‘p’ value was <0.0001 and was highly significant.Conclusions: Our study has illustrated that vitamin-D levels were significantly low in pneumonia and asthma patients as compared to control.