Sir,
The article by Babli on Vitamin D is well-timed.[1] At a time when controversies on the role of Vitamin D are found regularly in publications, the authors have advanced appropriate concern in their study.[2] Without going into a debate sans nationally available data on the status of Vitamin D deficiency, this should be the first step for raising awareness about the issue. However, some clarifications are necessary.
The authors have given certain scores in the assessment of the knowledge of physicians. In the scoring system, as the mean was 27 and standard deviation (SD) was 3, cut off for −1SD should be 24 and 21 for −2SD, but the authors virtually considered all scores <−1SD as −2SD and classified them as “poor” knowledge.
Second, as mentioned by the authors, “there are no recommendations on Vitamin D supplementation by the Ministry of Health.” Therefore, it would be interesting to document the amount prescribed by the physicians there. The present international guidelines recommend 400 IU/day of Vitamin D for infants and 600 IU/day for older children.[3]
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Conflicts of interest
There are no conflicts of interest.
REFERENCES
- 1.Babli AI, AlDawood KM, Khamis AH. Knowledge, attitude, and practice of general practitioners in Dammam, Saudi Arabia towards Vitamin D supplementation to infants. J Family Community Med. 2015;22:135–9. doi: 10.4103/2230-8229.163025. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 2.Shah D, Gupta P. Vitamin D deficiency: Is the pandemic for real? Indian J Community Med. 2015;40:215–7. doi: 10.4103/0970-0218.164378. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
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