Vitamin D Levels of Anesthesia Personnel, Office Workers and Outdoor Workers in Ankara, Turkey.

BACKGROUND: Vitamin D deficiency or insufficiency is a highly prevalent condition worldwide. Anesthesia providers or support personnel working in operating rooms might be considered at increased risk of vitamin D deficiency. There is a small amount of information about 25(OH)D levels in people who work mainly indoors as an operating room. This study aimed to investigate whether there was a higher vitamin D insufficiency or deficiency rate among anesthesia personnel working indoors when compared with personnel working in an office or outdoors in Ankara, Turkey (39 degrees North, 32 degrees East).

METHODS: This study consisted of 125 volunteer anesthesia personnel and 60 subjects as control groups (30 outdoor workers and 30 office workers). All of the individuals completed a questionnaire. Serum levels of total 25(OH)D were measured by a chemiluminescent immunoassay method.

RESULTS: 74.4% of anesthesia personnel and 76.6% of control group 1 (outdoor workers) and 76.6% of control group 2 (office workers) had serum 25(OH)D concentrations < 10 ng/mL. 20.8% of anesthesia personnel and 23.4% of control group 1 and 23.4% of control group 2 had serum 25(OH)D concentrations levels 10 - 20 ng/mL. 4.8% of anesthesia personnel had serum 25(OH)D concentration levels 21 - 30 ng/mL. There was no significant difference in the mean serum 25(OH)D level between the groups (Anesthesia group: 8.98 ± 4.89 ng/mL, Control group 1: 8.18 ± 2.39 ng/mL, Control group 2: 8.37 ± 3.01 ng/mL) (p > 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS: To our knowledge the present study is the first study to investigate the comparison of vitamin D levels of anesthesia personnel with outdoor and office workers. Our findings alarmingly emphasize that vitamin D deficiency is very common at the end of winter in Ankara, regardless of being anesthesia personnel in operating room or a worker in office or an outdoor worker. Vitamin D supplementation may be suggested in all groups in Ankara.