Study of Effect of Two Dosage Regimens of Vitamin D in Obese, Vitamin-d Insufficient Adults

Vitamin D deficiency is found to be common in variety of conditions like diabetes mellitus and obesity. There is scarce data regarding the dose and duration of Vitamin D treatment in such patients. Adults were screened for presence of Vitamin D insufficiency by chemiluminescent immunoassays and studied for the effect of 2 dose regimens for 2 months. After confirming Vitamin D insufficiency (< 30 ng/mL), they were treated with either 3 lakh IU (I.M.)/month or 6 lakh IU (I.M.)/month (n=13 each). Vitamin D was estimated monthly. Results of our study show that Vitamin D deficiency is common in obese patients. At the end of one month, administration of Vitamin D resulted in significant (p < 0.05) improvement in Vitamin D levels in both these groups. Vitamin D levels in these two groups were comparable at the end of 1 month (25.28 ± 3.75ng/mL and 26.16 ± 3.72ng/mL). However further administration of Vitamin D significantly (p < 0.05) improved the levels of Vitamin D in patients receiving the higher dose 6 lakh IU (33.28 ± 2.55 ng/mL) vs. 3 lakh IU (31.52 ± 3.29). There was no evidence of Vitamin D toxicity. Hence, administration of Vitamin D in the dose of 6 lakh units (I.M.)/month might be a better regimen than 3 lakh IU (I.M.)/month to correct Vitamin D deficiency in these patients. However, the exact duration of treatment was necessary to maintain the Vitamin D level in normal range, needs to be determined by further studies.