Vitamin D Status and Magnesium Status Among Infants Aged 6 Weeks to 12 Months Attending Chuka County Referral Hospital Well Baby Clinic.

Abstract

Background: Vitamin D deficiency is a re- emerging public health problem across the globe. Vitamin D plays a key role in calcium absorption, bone mineralization and aids in phosphate and magnesium metabolism. Early life vitamin D deficiency is associated with adverse child health outcomes. This deficiency increases the risk of stunted growth, rickets, recurrent respiratory infections, atopy, type 1 diabetes and cardiovascular risk later in life. Magnesium deficiency has been shown to reduce vitamin D levels. There are few studies done in urban settings that reveal a high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency among infants. The magnitude of co- existence of vitamin D and magnesium deficiency remains under- explored in Kenya. Objective: To determine the status of vitamin D among infant- mother pairs, Magnesium and other related biochemical parameters among infants attending the routine well-baby clinic at Chuka County Referral Hospital. Methodology: This was a descriptive cross-sectional study. To find qualified volunteers, we applied sequential sampling. For the caregivers who consented, obtained data on the infants’ and caregivers’ sociodemographic and infants’ clinical characteristics. We drew 3 mls of mother’s peripheral blood to determine vitamin D levels and 3 mls of infant’s peripheral blood to determine vitamin D, magnesium, parathyroid hormone, calcium, phosphorus and alkaline phosphatase levels. The Kenyatta National Hospital/University of Nairobi Ethics Review Committee and Chuka Hospital Management granted the ethical approval for the study. 2 Data Analysis: IBM version 21.0 SPSS was used for the analysis of the data. We made use of descriptive statistics to analyse the levels of measured variables in the serum. Results: A total of 122 infant mother pairs were recruited with 56 % male, 44% females and a mean age of 5.5 months. Majority of the infants were born at term via SVD. 58 % reported sun exposure for >30 minutes and majority were exclusively breastfed. 87.7% of the caregivers were from low socio-economic status with secondary school education. The mean serum Vitamin D levels among infants and their mothers was 52.57ng/dl and 37.95ng/dl. We found vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency among infants to be 5% and 6.5% respectively. 9% and 22% of mothers were vitamin D deficient and insufficient respectively. All infants were magnesium sufficient. There was a significant linear correlation between infant and maternal Vitamin D levels (r = 0.285, P= 0.002). Conclusion: Hypovitaminosis D is still a major problem in the tropics. Policies on adequate sun exposure and vitamin D supplementation among breastfeeding mothers and their infants should be considered.