Clinical Identification of Hypovitaminosis D among Elderly Attending Primary Care Centre in Saudi Arabia.

Background: A large proportion of elderly people suffer from hypovitaminosis D, and depending on the severity of the condition, they develop complications that are detrimental to their health. Objective: To determine the consistency between the results of the vitamin D level in the blood compared to the result with the score of a simple questionnaire (Physician Vitamin D Status Predictor - VDSP) for elderly patients. Results: The study included 335 participants who ranged between 60 and 107 years old with a mean age of 68.2 years and standard deviation (SD) of 7.3 years. Females represented 66.9% of the total participants. The prevalence of vitamin D deficiency was 60.8%; among them, 7.2% were categorized as severe deficiency, whereas the prevalence of vitamin D insufficiency was 29.9%. The outcomes of VDSP survey were not directly associated with serum 25(OH)D levels in elderly people, except for the number of medications. In addition, vitamin D supplementation was associated with serum 25(OH)D levels among those patients. Conclusion: Vitamin D supplementation was significantly associated with serum 25(OH)D levels. Moreover, this study showed a significant association between serum 25(OH)D levels and the number of medications taken by the participants.