Background: Vitamin D deficiency is a significant global health issue. It is prevalent in chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients, which is an important cause of death among children. Many studies have found a link between low vitamin D status in CKD patients and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors. However, there are no data on this relationship in children with CKD in Saudi Arabia.
Aims: We aimed to demonstrate this association among children with CKD admitted to the King Abdulaziz University Hospital (KAUH) in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Materials and methods: Data were collected between June and August 2020 from a convenience sample of pediatric patients.
Results: In total, 153 pediatric patients with CKD stages 2-5 were admitted to the KAUH between 2010 and 2019, and 67.3% had CKD stage 5. Approximately 4.6% and 10.5% of the participants were overweight or obese, respectively. Patients who fell into the lower 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25[OH]D) tertile were older, had higher body mass index (BMI) values, and had higher blood pressure than those in the upper two tertiles; however, these differences were not statistically significant. There was a significant inverse association of 25(OH)D levels with BMI, blood pressure, and serum creatinine levels.
Conclusions: The results of this retrospective study suggest that patients with CKD and lower vitamin D levels have a higher BMI and blood pressure and are therefore at higher risk of developing CVD. Future prospective studies with a larger sample size are needed to confirm these findings. Randomized clinical trials are also needed to investigate the effect of sufficient vitamin D status on reducing CVD in patients with CKD.
Keywords: cardiometabolic risk factors; cardiovascular disease; chronic kidney disease; pediatric nephrology; vitamin d.
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