Need to relook at the population-specific levels of vitamin d -a pilot study

An alarming high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in a tropical country like India, necessitates
addressing certain important factors based on which hypovitaminosis D is diagnosed and treated.
Though vitamin D deficiency is related to various clinical conditions ranging from simple myopathy
to cancer; most of the studies done in Indian population report the deficiency based on the reference
range of vitamin D in Western population and in addition, report no evident clinical symptoms or
signs associated with the deficiency. This study therefore tried to relook at the vitamin D levels in
apparently healthy subjects and observed that the vitamin D levels were in the deficiency range
without any clinical findings related to hypovitaminosis D. It was concluded that it’s high time to
establish population specific reference ranges for vitamin D which would help in preventing
unnecessary supplementation of vitamin D.