RESUMO
OBJECTIVES: To evaluate vitamin D status in two subgroups of the Lebanese aged population. To compare results with reference values observed in healthy young volunteers. METHODS: Fifty aged institutionalized patients (25 men and 25 women) and 51 aged ambulatory subjects (25 men and 26 women) underwent the following explorations during winter: serum 25-OH vitamin D, parathyroid hormone, corrected serum calcium, phosphorus, creatinine, and alkaline phosphatases and urinary calcium/creatinine. Serum 25-OH vitamin D and urinary calcium/creatinine were also measured in 34 healthy young volunteers. RESULTS: Serum 25-OH vitamin D levels in 25 ambulatory subjects (49%) and 30 institutionalized patients (60%) were below 10 ng/ml. There was non significant difference in 25-OH vitamin D levels between the ambulatory and institutionalized aged populations, nor between aged women and aged men. Parathyroid hormone, alkaline phosphatases and urinary calcium/creatinine levels were higher in the institutionalized population than in the ambulatory population (p = 0.07; p = 0.0001; p = 0.0001 respectively). Aged women had higher parathyroid hormone and calcium/creatine levels than aged men (p = 0.005; p = 0.005 respectively). Finally, in the young population, 25-OH vitamin D was higher than in the aged institutionalized and ambulatory populations (p = 0.0001 and p = 0.0009 respectively). An inverse non-significant correlation (r = -0.16) was found between parathyroid hormone and 25-OH vitamin D. CONCLUSION: Our results show that even in a sunny country like Lebanon, vitamin D deficiency is often observed. The degree of deficiency probably lies between that observed in Europe and the United States. It could be related to low vitamin D diet.