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Validity of self‐reported vitamin D deficiency among midlife A rab women living in Q atar
Author(s) -
Gerber Linda M.,
Giambrone Ashley E.,
AlAli Hala M.,
Verjee Mohamud A.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
american journal of human biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.559
H-Index - 81
eISSN - 1520-6300
pISSN - 1042-0533
DOI - 10.1002/ajhb.22766
Subject(s) - vitamin d deficiency , medicine , cohen's kappa , vitamin d and neurology , kappa , vitamin , endocrinology , mathematics , statistics , geometry
Objectives This study evaluates the level of agreement between self‐reported vitamin D deficiency and serum vitamin D measured within the previous calendar year. Methods In a study in which serum 25(OH)D levels were retrieved from electronic health records, 523 women were asked whether they considered themselves to have vitamin D deficiency. Serum vitamin D levels were categorized as vitamin D deficiency if serum 25(OH)D was <20 ng/ml and as insufficiency if <30 ng/ml. The kappa statistic was computed to assess the level of agreement between serum 25(OH)D level and self‐report responses. Results Agreement between self‐reported and measured 25(OH)D levels was poor. The kappa statistic was −0.041 when using a cutpoint of <20 ng/ml and −0.008 using the cutpoint of <30 ng/ml. Among women with levels ≥20 ng/ml, 82.4% believed that they were vitamin D deficient, while 13.3% who were below <20 ng/ml did not self‐report deficiency. Among women who did not report vitamin D deficiency, 46.3% (37/80) had levels <20 ng/ml while 82.5% (66/80) had levels <30 ng/ml. Conclusions These findings suggest that, although the prevalence of 25(OH)D <20 and <30 ng/ml was quite high (53.2% and 84.7%, respectively), there was little agreement between measured levels and self‐report of vitamin D deficiency. This may be due to belief in this region that low levels of serum vitamin D is widespread. Better communication is needed between healthcare providers and patients regarding transmission of laboratory results. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 28:181–185, 2016. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.