Vitamin D deficiency associated with UTI in children: Study

A study was conducted by a group of researchers from Pakistan to demonstrate the Vitamin-D levels in children with urinary tract infection.

The researchers undertook a cross-sectional study at Pediatric Department, Liaquat University Hospital Hyderabad, Pakistan from July 2019 to March 2020.

The selected a total of 172 children of both genders ranging from 2 to 60 months of age with a confirmed diagnosis of urinary tract infection (UTI) for this study. There were 130 (75.58%) females and 40 (23.25%) males. The kids who received antibiotics 48 hours before or already on immunosuppressive drugs and steroids from previous health records or by taking clinically relevant history), children with CKD on vitamin-D supplementation, and known case of Vitamin-D deficiency were also excluded from the study.

All the participants were assessed for vitamin D level by high-performance liquid chromatography. The urine sample was collected for C/S and 1 cc venous blood was taken for Vitamin D level (ng/ml).

The mean ± standard deviation (SD) and stratification was calculated for age, duration of urinary tract infection, and vitamin-D level. Post-stratification chi-square test was also applied for all categorical variables at 95% confidence interval (CI) and P-value ≤0.05 was considered significant.

The findings of the study are as follows:

· 87.21% of children had a complaint of fever, followed by vomiting in 18.02,

· abdominal pain in 12.79% and dysuria in 8.72% of children.

· A total of 129 (75%) children had pyelonephritis and 15 (25%) had cystitis.

· Mild vitamin D deficiency was present in 42 (53.16%) children, while moderate deficiency in 55 (69.62%) children. E. Coli was the most common pathogen in both mild and moderate vitamin D deficiency i.e., 20 (47.61) and 31 (56.36%) respectively.

The researchers concluded that the frequency of urinary tract infection is more common in children having vitamin D deficiency.

Reference:

Frequency of Vitamin-D deficiency in children with Urinary tract infection: A descriptive a cross-sectional study by Qadir S published in the Pakistan Journal of Medical Sciences.

DOI: 10.12669/pjms.37.4.3896