Objectives:

To know the prevalence of vitamin D insufficiency in Ecuadorian postmenopausal women with type 2 diabetes mellitus, and to investigate the correlation between serum levels of vitamin D, variables of metabolic control of type 2 diabetes mellitus, markers of bone metabolism and bone mineral density.

Design, materials and methods:

Epidemiological study descriptive and cross-sectional design, carried out between January 2012 November 2015. In 124 postmenopausal women, 96 with type 2 diabetes mellitus and 28 without diabetes, we measured serum levels of vitamin D, glycosylated hemoglobin, HOMA-IR, parathyroid hormone, ionic calcium, osteocalcin, urinary deoxypiridinoline and bone density. Premenopausal women, kidney disease, type 1 diabetes, secondary osteoporosis, and those who received treatments that affect bone metabolism, were excluded.

We separate patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus in 2 groups: group sufficiency vitamin D (>30 ng/mL) and group insufficiency vitamin D (<30 ng/mL). The latter group was subdivided into insufficiency (<30 ng/mL), deficiency (<20 ng/mL) and severe deficiency (<10 ng/mL). An analysis of linear correlation between vitamin D and all variables was performed.

Results:

We found a significant reduction in serum levels of vitamin D in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus compared with the controls (p<0,034). The group of patients with diabetes mellitus had the following characteristics: age, 66 (13) years; body mass index, 28.5 (6.5); vitamin D, 20.9 (8.2) ng/mL; and parathyroid hormone, 34 (21) pg/mL; 12.5% had sufficiency and 87.5% insufficiency of vitamin D; among these, 44 had insufficiency, 36 deficiency and 4 severe deficiency. There is a significant correlation between VD, age (p=0,036) and lumbar bone density (p=0,031). We found no correlation between vitamin D and the variables of metabolic control of diabetes.

Conclusions:

We found a high prevalence of vitamin D insufficiency in the Ecuadorian postmenopausal women with type 2 diabetes mellitus.

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