Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: • Vitamin D deficiency is thought to impair insulin action and glucose metabolism.

• Migrants who live in Western countries seem to have lower 25(OH)VitD levels, not only from their white counterparts but also from their native populations in their country of origin.

Objectives: • We investigated a cohort of predominantly white Greek Caucasian and Bangladeshi immigrant patients with diabetes mellitus in order assess the differences in 25(OH)VitD.

Methods: • A total of 165 patients from Bangladesh and 118 patients from Greece with diabetes were assessed for diabetes and 25(OH)VitD status.

• All measurements of 25(OH)VitD were categorized into two halves of the year: the first period from mid-October until mid-April: winter period; and second period from mid-April until mid-October: summer period.

• The prevalence of vitamin deficiency (<20 ng/ml), insufficiency (20-<30 ng/ml) and sufficiency (≥30 ng/ml) was estimated.

Results: • A total of 76 Bangladeshi patients (65 men and 11 women) and 43 (36 men and 7 women) Greek patients were recruited over the winter period and 83 (80 men and 3 women) Bangleshi patients and 71 (61 men and 10 women) Greek patients over the summer period.

• Patients from Bangladesh were younger than Greek patients (43.96±8.1 vs. 48.78±9.3 years old).

• Patients from Bangladesh had slightly worse glycemic control as compared with Greek patients (HbA1c=7.76±1.5% vs. 7.57±1.7%, P=0.3).

• The 25(OH)VitD levels of Bangladeshi patients were significant lower compared to Greek patients (12.42±5.86 vs. 23.06±12.36, P<0.001).

• The same pattern also occurred regarding the seasonal periods. In Bangladeshi patients, the mean level of 25(OH)VitD in winter and summer periods was 11.28±5.53 and 13.68±6.04 ng/ml, respectively. In Greek patients the mean level of 25(OH)VitD in winter and summer periods was 21.97±13.18 and 24.19±12.32 ng/ml, respectively.

• The prevalence of 25(OH)VitD deficiency, insufficiency and sufficiency differ significantly in two groups of patients and in Bangladeshi patients was 90.0%, 8.6% and 1.2%, respectively, while in Greek patients, the rates were 43.2, 32.2 and 24.57%, respectively.

Conclusions: • The prevalence of vitamin D deficiency is very high amongst patients with diabetes but immigrants are at greater risk. Vitamin D supplementation could be valuable mostly during the winter period for patients with diabetes.