CL Rock

F Azizi

Mohsen Maddah

RS Sebastian

Seyede Hajar Sharami

SH Sharami

English

PubMed

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Intake of calcium/vitamin D supplement in Iranian postmenopausal women

LETTER
Intake of calcium/vitamin D supplement in Iranian
postmenopausal women
Mohsen Maddah & Seyede Hajar Sharami
Received: 25 September 2009 /Accepted: 28 October 2009 /Published online: 11 December 2009
# The Author(s) 2009. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com
In Iran, the last National Nutrition and Dietary Survey [1]
showed that about 80% of Iranians do not meet the
estimated average requirement for calcium. While foods
are not generally fortified in Iran, dietary supplement may
be a convenient way to prevent nutritional deficiency in
high-risk population groups including the elderly [2, 3].
There is however, no data on supplement usage by older
adults in Iran. This study assessed calcium/vitamin D
supplement use among postmenopausal women with
undiagnosed osteoporosis and normal bone women living
in urban and rural areas in Guilan, northern Iran.
This study is part of a survey conducted to examine
prevalence of osteoporosis among elderly women in Guilan,
northern Iran. A total of 504 women from urban areas and
291 women from rural areas were selected. Diagnosis of
osteoporosis was carried out using quantitative ultrasound
technique and positive cases were confirmed by dual X-ray
absorptiometry [4]. Serum 25(OH) D3 was measured using a
commercial kit (BioSource 25OH-Vit.D3-CT Kit).
Overall usage of calcium/vitamin D supplement was
18.8% in this population. While osteoporosis was more
prevalent among rural women, they used calcium supple-
ment less frequently than urban women did (Table 1). More
educated women had more calcium/vitamin D use than less
educated women (32.6% vs. 23.9% P<0.01). These data
showed that frequency of calcium/vitamin D usage was less
among women with osteoporosis than women who had
normal bone density (17.7% vs. 19.2 P<0.05).
While there is insufficient knowledge about the actual
amount of total nutrient that Iranian consumes from diet, it
is estimated that the highest inadequate dietary intake is for
calcium (80%) [1] and vitamin D (70%) [5]. Despite
widespread deficiency of calcium and vitamin D only
18% of this population used calcium supplement daily.
Considering that the fortification of food is not practiced in
Iran (except for Iodine) there is a national need to remediate
of vitamin and mineral deficiencies.
Intake of calcium/vitamin D supplement was less among
those women who had undiagnosed osteoporosis than
women with normal density bone. Moreover, more educated
women were more likely to use calcium supplement than
less educated women in this population. It has been shown
that multivitamin/mineral supplements are generally used by
individual who practice healthier life style [6]. In this
population of postmenopausal women, rural women were
more likely to have decreased bone mass than urban women.
However, intake of calcium/vitamin D supplement among
rural women was less than urban women.
M. Maddah (*)
Department of Human Nutrition, School of Public Health,
Guilan University of Medical Sciences,
Rasht, I.R., Iran
e-mail: maddahm@yahoo.com
S. H. Sharami
Department of gynecology, School of Medicine,
Guilan University of Medical Sciences,
Rasht, I.R., Iran
Arch Osteoporos (2009) 4:95–96
DOI 10.1007/s11657-009-0033-9
Acknowledgment We thank the women who participated in this
study. This study was financially supported by Guilan University of
Medical Sciences.
Disclosures None.
Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative
Commons Attribution Noncommercial License which permits any
noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,
provided the original author(s) and source are credited.
Reference
1. National assessment of iron, zinc, calcium, vitamin A and vitamin
D in different age groups, 2001. Final report of national survey,
Tehran, Iranian MOH, 2005 [in Farsi]
2. Sebastian RS, Cleveland LE, Goldman JD, Moshfegh AJ (2007)
Older adults who use vitamin/mineral supplements differ from
nonusers in nutrient intake adequacy and dietary attitudes. J Am
Diet Assoc 107:1322–1332
3. NIH State-of-the-Sciences Conference Statement on Multivitamin/
Mineral Supplement and Chronic Disease Prevention. NIH Consens
State Sci Statements 2006; 23:1–30
4. Sharami SH, Milani F, Alizadeh A, Ranjbar ZA, Shakiba M,
Mohammadi A (2008) Risk factors of osteoporosis in women over
50 years of age: a population based study in the north of Iran. J
Turkish-German Gynecol Assoc 9:38–44
5. Azizi F, Rais-Zadeh F, Mir Said Ghazi A (2000) Vitamin D deficiency
in a group of Tehran population. Research in Medicine 4:291–303
6. Rock CL (2007) Multivitamin-mineral supplements: who uses
them? Am J Clin Nutr 85:277S–279S
Table 1 Age, employment status, body mass index, educational
levels, prevalence of osteoprosis, vitamin D insufficiency, and
supplement use of the women by urban and rural residence in Guilan,
Iran
Urban (n=504) Rural (n=291)
Age (mean±SD) 64.1±9.0 62±8.1*
BMI (kg/m2) 29.7±5.3 27.5±5.5*
Employed (%) 18.5 0.9
Educational level (%)
>5-year schooling 73.8 1.0
<5-year schooling 26.2 99.0
Vitamin D insufficiencya
(>30 ng/ml) 84.7 79.5*
Osteoprosis (%) 16.6 22.1**
Calcium/vitamin D
Supplement (%) 26.2 6.2*
*P<0.001; **P<0.05
a Serum vitamin D level was measured in 427 and 219 women in
urban and rural areas, respectively
96 Arch Osteoporos (2009) 4:95–96


Crossref

Conference Statement on Multivitamin/ Mineral Supplement and Chronic Disease Prevention. NIH Consens State Sci Statements

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Multivitamin-mineral supplements: who uses them?

National assessment of iron, zinc, calcium, vitamin A and vitamin D in different age groups,

Older adults who use vitamin/mineral supplements differ from nonusers in nutrient intake adequacy and dietary attitudes.

Said Ghazi A

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Intake of calcium/vitamin D supplement in Iranian postmenopausal women

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