Background: An association has been established between low serum values of vitamin D and inflammatory bowel disease. There is a lack of evidence on whether this association is still observed in regions where sun exposure throughout the year is higher.
Objective: To compare the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency between inflammatory bowel disease patients and healthy controls.
Methods: Inflammatory bowel disease patients were consecutively enrolled as cases. Age and gender-matched healthy subjects who agreed to undertake a determination of serum vitamin D were enrolled as controls. Demographic features, medical treatment, need for hospital admission at diagnosis, steroid treatment, smoking, need for surgical treatment were evaluated as factors associated with vitamin D deficiency.
Results: Overall, 59 patients with a diagnosis of either Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis were enrolled, as well as 56 controls. Median age was 41 years (19-79) and 56% were male. Vitamin D deficiency was observed in 66.1% of inflammatory bowel disease patients versus 21.42% of healthy controls (OR 7.15 (3.1-16.48), P=0.001). Among inflammatory bowel disease patients, male gender, disease duration, moderate-to-severe disease and hospital admission at the moment of diagnosis were found to be associated with vitamin D deficiency. On multivariate analysis, only longer disease duration [(OR 1.01 (1-1.06)] and hospital admission at diagnosis [(OR 5.63 (1.01-31.61)] were found to be significantly associated with the latter.
Conclusion: Vitamin D deficiency was more frequent among inflammatory bowel disease patients. Longer disease duration and need for hospital admission at diagnosis were associated to vitamin D deficiency among these patients.