Background: Vitamin D Deficiency in children is a worldwide health
problem. Yet, there is little known about awareness of parents regarding
this issue in Jordan. The recent study aimed to assess the mothers’
knowledge and practices toward vitamin D deficiency in infants and up to
age of 6 years. Methods: an online questionnaire was distributed as
Google Form on mothers of children between 0-6 yeas, assessing their
knowledge about vitamin D, its deficiency, and their practices toward
vitamin D deficiency for their children, Descriptive statistics and
Chi-Square test were performed. Results: Most of mothers (64.8%) were
aged between 30-40 years, and had education level of Bachelor’s degree
(63.3%). Sunlight was considered the main source of vitamin D (89.1%),
while fish and eggs were the main dietary sources (63.5%, 65.5%,
respectively). Vitamin D was considered important for bone and teeth
health (93.9%). The majority of participants reported lack of sun
exposure and decreased vitamin D rich foods as risk factors and rickets
as complication of vitamin D deficiency (98.5%, 96.4%, 89.3%,
respectively). Most of mothers (65.1%) indicated the time before 10 AM
as the best time of day to expose baby/child to the sun. The majority of
participants (82.2%) believe that vitamin D deficiency is a common
health problem in children in our country, and 86.4% think they need
more information on vitamin D deficiency in children. Age, nationality,
nature of housing, and age group of children had an impact on
knowledge’s level of participants. Conclusion: Most of participants were
aware of vitamin D sources, benefits, risk factors and complications of
deficiency, although there was inadequate knowledge among respondents
was found in certain domains of vitamin D. More education is required
for mothers about vitamin D and its deficiency.
Poor dietary consumption and limited sun exposure are risk factors for vitamin D deficiency in premenopausal Kuwaiti women: A cross-sectional study
