European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

A RETROSPECTIVE STUDY OF ASSOCIATION OF VITAMIN D LEVELS IN PATIENTS WITH CHRONIC MUSCULO-SKELETAL COMPLAINTS

*Shankaran P and Sarve P

ABSTRACT

Background: Vitamin D deficiency has been implicated in chronic pain status. Hence, the present study was a retrospective analysis of data from patients with chronic pain including non-specific musculoskeletal complaints. Methods: Patients of either gender, aged between 18 and 75 years, presented with any form of musculoskeletal complaint for at least 3 months and who had checked their vitamin D levels were included in the study. The following details were extracted from the patient’s records: age, sex, diagnosis, duration of symptoms, presence of any co-morbid illness, vitamin D levels, and visual analogue scale (VAS) for pain. Results: Data from a total of 98 patients were included in the analysis. The median (range) vitamin D levels were 16.1(3-100) ng/ml. A total of 69 out of 98 (70%) study participants were found to be deficient in vitamin D and 19 (19.4%) with insufficient levels. Of those with non specific musculoskeletal pain (n=50), 40 (80%) had deficient levels and 8 (16%) had insufficient vitamin D. However, a trend (P=0.06) was observed between the duration of symptoms and vitamin D levels. A statistically significant difference (P=0.01) was seen in vitamin D levels [median (range) – 13.1 (3-51.5) ng/ml] in those with non specific musculoskeletal pain and other diagnoses had Vitamin D level [median (range) – 18.6 (6.2-100) ng/ml] in the sub-group analysis. Conclusion: Vitamin D deficiency may result in chronic musculoskeletal pain. Hence, a high index of suspicion of hypovitaminosis D is necessary from the physicians when patients with non specific musculoskeletal complaints are encountered in their clinical practice.

Keywords: Hypovitaminosis D, Chronic pain, Vitamin D deficiency.