Assessment of vitamin D status among prepubertal obese girls and its relation to behaviour problems

Abstract

orresponding to the importance of vitamin D, as well as the shortage of studies examining its effect on obesity and behaviour problems in the prepubertal period.The aim of our study was to evaluate vitamin D status in obese prepubertal girls and to investigate its relationships to obesity and behaviour problems in prepubertal girls. This comparative cross-sectional study was conducted on 70 obese (6-10 years) prebupertal girls and 20 ages matched normal weight girls as a standard for vitamin D level. They were recruited from the clinic of ‘Management of visceral obesity and growth disturbance’ in the ‘Medical Research Centre of Excellence’ in the National Research Centre (NRC). They were subjected to personal and family history intake, full physical examination, anthropometric assessment, vitamin D level measurement and Assessment of behaviour problems and depressive symptoms. According to their vitamin D level they were subdivided into: normal weight with normal vitamin D, normal weight with vitamin D deficiency, obese with normal vitamin D and obese with vitamin D deficiency.