Objective
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the vitamin D nutritional status of Korean postmenopausal women.
Methods
The winter time serum 25(OH)D concentrations were measured by RIA for the evaluation of vitamin D nutritional status in 276 healthy ambulatory postmenopausal women from 5 university hospitals, Seoul, Korea. Serum intact PTH by IRMA and lumbar spinal BMD were concomitantly checked. Two serum biochemical bone turnover markers such as osteocalcin and N-telopeptide were also measured by IRMA and ELISA respectively.
Results
Mean serum 25(OH)D concentration in 276 Korean postmenopausal women was 12.2±6.1 ng/ml and serum PTH 21.4±11.5 ng/ml in winter season. Hypovitaminosis D (25(OH)D≤12 ng/ml) affected 57.2% of all studied postmenopausal subjects, which comprised 10.9% of vitamin D deficiency (≥6 ng/ml) and 46.3% of vitamin D insufficiency (6~12 ng/ml), respectively. The postmenopausal women with hypovitaminosis D had significantly lower serum PTH and lower BMD compared with those with normal vitamin D levels, but showed no differences in levels of biochemical bone markers.
Conclusion
These findings suggest that Korean postmenopausal women are at increased risk of inadequate vitamin D nutritional status, therefore it is prudent to prescribe the supplemental vitamin D for the most of Korean postmenopausal women, especially during the winter season.
