Educational program and Vitamin D Deficiency in Middle-aged Women living in Karaj, Iran

Background: Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin and is essential nutrient for metabolic and physiological processes in the human body. This study aimed to assess the effectiveness of educational program regarding vitamin D deficiency preventive behaviors and vitamin D supplement amongmiddle-aged women living in Karaj, Iran. Methods and Materials: Two hundred forty middle-aged women (30-60 years old) with vitamin D deficiency were randomly selected from referrers to comprehensive health centers after blood test. The selected individuals were randomly divided into three equal interventional groups of preventive behaviors education, supplemental consumption, combination of preventive behavior education and supplemental vitamin D consumption, and one control group with sample size of 60 individuals in each group. Six months after intervention, the level of vitamin D in serum of all subjects was measured and General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) was used to determine the subjects’ general health. Results: The results showed that the group which were educated to improve preventive behaviors and also were prescribed supplemental vitamin D was significantly better than the other groups regarding vitamin D deficiency improvement and general health score (P 0.05). Combination of complementary and education was more effective than the other methods and significantly improved the general health (PV 0.0001) Conclusion: This study showed the simultaneous supplementary prescription and preventive behavior education was the most effective to prevent vitamin D deficiency.