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CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · Ibnosina Journal of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences 2019; 11(03): 97-108
DOI: 10.4103/ijmbs.ijmbs_50_19
Invited Review

Paradoxical Vitamin D deficiency in a sunny country: A narrative review of the literature from the United Arab Emirates (1992–2018)

Salem Beshyah
1   Department of Medicine, Dubai Medical College, Dubai
2   Department of Endocrinology, Mediclinic Airport Road Hospital, Abu Dhabi, UAE
,
Khadija Hafidh
3   Department of Endocrinology, Rashid Hospital, Dubai
,
Dima Abdelmannan
1   Department of Medicine, Dubai Medical College, Dubai
4   Department of Medicine, Dubai Medical College; Dubai Diabetes Center, Dubai
,
Abdul Jabbar
5   Endocrine Division, Medcare Multispecialty Hospital, Dubai
,
Wafic Wafa
5   Endocrine Division, Medcare Multispecialty Hospital, Dubai
,
Aly Khalil
6   Department of Endocrinology, Imperial College London Diabetes Center, Abu Dhabi
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Deficiency of Vitamin D is a global problem related to lack of sunlight exposure and reduced dietary intake. Vitamin D deficiency (VDD) affects mainly skeletal structure and function but has a number of recognized nonskeletal effects that have wide ramifications. It sounds ironic that low serum Vitamin D levels are widely documented in a sunny country like the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The study objective was to review the literature on VDD in the UAE. This is a narrative nonsystematic review of the literature on the epidemiological and clinical aspects of Vitamin D status in the UAE based on PubMed search using two search terms “Vitamin D” and “Emirates.” We discuss the various themes that emerged as follows: epidemiology and disease burden of VDD in the UAE population in general and in specific groups (adults, children, females, and pregnant and nursing mothers); awareness of dietary intake, climate, genetics, and metabolic factors affecting serum Vitamin D levels; and the overview of current clinical management guidelines, interventional trials, and clinical practices. VDD is a widely documented health problem in the UAE population as a whole and in several special groups. This may have serious skeletal and nonskeletal health implications.

Key-words:

Adult population - diet - direct sun exposure - epidemiology - female health - genetic polymorphism - joint and bone weakness - Middle East - obesity - sunlight - United Arab Emirates - Vitamin D deficiency

Financial support and sponsorship

Nil.




Publication History

Received: 31 August 2019

Accepted: 07 September 2019

Article published online:
07 July 2022

© 2019. The Libyan Authority of Scientific Research and Technologyand the Libyan Biotechnology Research Center. All rights reserved. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial-License,permitting copying and reproductionso long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, oradapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

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