Abstract
Introduction
Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a well-known health care problem. The is a growing interest in the role of vitamin D in metabolism including glucose and lipid metabolism. This study aims to investigate the possible association between 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels and serum lipid levels among patients with T2DM.
Method
A cross-sectional study was done at the King Faisal University Health Care Center in the Eastern Region of Saudi Arabia. Ethical approval was obtained from the Ethics and Research Committee at the College of Medicine, King Faisal University. We obtained the clinical and laboratory data of patients with T2DM by searching the electronic files of patients attending the center during the period between 2014 to 2021. Data collected included age, gender, nationality, vitamin D levels, HbA1c, and lipid levels. The Chi-square and independent-sample t-tests were applied when appropriate, for comparisons between groups to determine significance. A P-value of less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant.
Result
The study included 191 diabetic patients, 137 (71.7%) from Saudi Arabia, and 54 (28.3%) from other countries. Patient ages ranged from 21 to 100 years with a mean age of 56.2 +/- 11.8 years. Cholesterol levels were observed to be high among 61 (32.3%) patients. Considering vitamin D, the average level among male patients was 26.526 ng/ml compared to 26 ng/ml% among females (P = 0.742).
Conclusion
Further long-term and more comprehensive randomized controlled trials are needed to make a firmer conclusion and stronger evidence on this beneficial role of vitamin D treatment on T2DM.