Did Wearing Mask and Lockdowns Affect Vitamin D Levels During the Coronavirus Disease-2019 Pandemic?

Abstract

Objective:To investigate the effects of wearing mask and lockdowns during the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on the vitamin D levels in females.Materials and Methods:This retrospective study included female adults aged 18-64 years who underwent vitamin D evaluation at our hospital in April and May from 2017 to 2020. Vitamin D levels were categorized as follows: 30 ng/mL (normal).Results:A total of 835 (90.8%) out of 920 females had vitamin D deficiency, and among them 463 (50.3%) had vitamin D severe deficiency. In April and May of 2020 (during the national lockdown period), 74 (89.2%) out of 83 subjects had vitamin D deficiency. Vitamin D levels were found to be higher in 2017 than the other years (p0.05).Conclusion:Our findings indicate that there is a serious and urgent public health problem regarding with vitamin D deficiency (>90%) in our population; and about 50% of them had severe deficiency. This problem was not different during the lockdown period compared with the previous two years.

Keywords

• coronavirus 2019
• lockdown
• outbreak
• mask
• vitamin d deficiency