الفهرس 
IntroductionOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Nutritional status is an indication of the overall well being of a population. Women in child-bearing age are at one of the most nutritionally-vulnerable stages of their life cycle. The current body of evidence shows that many women do not get enough micronutrients in their diets during their reproductive age as well as during pregnancy. Vitamin D, a prohormone synthesized in the skin mainly from exposure to sunlight, is a fat-soluble vitamin that is concerned mainly with bone health. The insufficiency/deficiency of vitamin D raises public health concern since it has been shown to be independently associated with a higher risk of all-cause mortality. In the past few years, a growing interest in vitamin D status among females in the childbearing period has been observed. For women of childbearing age, maternal vitamin D malnutrition imposes multiple health impacts. Nevertheless, there are limited data regarding the vitamin D status among non-pregnant females in their childbearing period. Therefore, we performed the present cross-sectional study in order to evaluate the vitamin D level among a sample of Egyptian females during the child-bearing period and identify the factors affecting vitamin D level among studied females.
In the present study, we included 100 healthy adult females in their childbearing period who were attending a Family Medicine Center. The age of the included women ranged from minimum 19 years to maximum 49 years old with a mean age of 34 ± 8.47 years. We found that the majority of participants have deficiency and insufficiency of vitamin D level; 43% of the included women had vitamin D deficiency and 13% of the women had vitamin D insufficiency. In the present study, we sought to identify the factors affecting vitamin D level among studied females. The analysis showed thatthere was a statistically significance association between the employment status of the included women and vitamin D3 level groups; unemployed women were more likely to have vitamin D deficiency than employed women. In the present study, a statistically significance association was observed between the duration of sun exposure and vitamin D3 level groups. Participants who exposed to sun ˃ 30 minutes/day were more likely to have sufficient vitamin D level. The results of the present study demonstrated that all participants who consume fish ≥3 times /week have sufficient vitamin D level. Therefore, there was a statistically significance association between a number of consuming fish/week and vitamin D3 level groups. In addition, we found no statistically significance association between using multivitamins and vitamin D3 level groups. Half of the participants who were using multivitamins had vitamin D insufficiency.In conclusion, vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency are prevalent among Egyptian women in childbearing period. In addition, the unemployment, low fish consumption, and infrequent sun exposure are significant risk factors for vitamin D deficiency. Therefore, for improving the health and productivity of women in childbearing period, a routine monitoring system for vitamin D and the other factors should be put in place. Nevertheless, future research on the role of multivitamins supplements and fish consumption in improving vitamin D nutrition is warranted.