Vitamin D status of psychiatric inpatients in New Zealand’s Waikato region

BMC Psychiatry

Research Article

David B Menkes¹  Reginald W Marsh¹  Peter Dean²  Kaye Lancaster²  Stephen A du Toit²  Michael Grant² 

[1] Waikato Clinical School, Private Bag 3200, 3240, Hamilton, New Zealand;Waikato District Health Board, Pembroke Street, 3240, Hamilton, New Zealand;

关键词: Schizophrenia;    Schizoaffective Disorder;    Psychiatric Inpatient;    Severe Deficiency;    Mild Deficiency;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-244X-12-68

 received in 2011-10-25, accepted in 2012-06-26,  发布年份 2012

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundVitamin D deficiency is widespread in New Zealand, confers multiple health risks, and may be particularly common among people with psychiatric illness. We studied vitamin D status in an unselected sample of adult psychiatric inpatients in Hamilton (latitude 37.5 S) during late winter.MethodsWe recruited 102 consenting subjects and measured 25-hydroxy vitamin D3 levels in venous blood using a competitive electrochemiluminescence immunoassay. In addition to descriptive statistics, we used one-sample t-tests to determine the extent to which ethnic and diagnostic subgroups fell below the vitamin D deficiency threshold of 50 nM.Results75 subjects (74%) had vitamin D levels <50 nM and thus had at least mild deficiency, while 19 (19%) were severely deficient with levels <25 nM. Rates of deficiency were comparable for men and women; only the former showed a correlation of vitamin D levels with age (r = 0.45, p < 0.01). Maori participants constituted half the sample (n = 51) and were more likely to be deficient than their European counterparts (p = 0.04). Vitamin D also varied by diagnosis, with schizophrenia associated with markedly lower levels than mania and depression (p < 0.001).ConclusionsVitamin D deficiency is prevalent in the psychiatric inpatient setting in New Zealand and may be relevant to poor physical health outcomes, notably among Maori and those with schizophrenia. These findings support proposals to provide vitamin D supplementation, particularly during the winter months.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Menkes et al.;licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2012