VITAMIN D LEVELS AND INSULIN RESISTANCE IN MALE TYPE 2 DIABETICS AT THE METABOLIC RESEARCH UNIT OF THE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE HOSPITAL, IBADAN

Abstract

BACKGROUND: A number of studies have shown a high percentage of insufficient vitamin D levels
in humans in the North American, European and Asian regions. Various research works have also
shown that insufficient vitamin D levels play a major role in the pathogenesis of chronic non-infective
8

illnesses like diabetes mellitus and cancer. This study was aimed at assessing the vitamin D status and
glucose homeostasis in male type 2 diabetics and normal controls.
METHODS: This comparative cross-sectional study included 80 confirmed type2 diabetic male
patients and 49 normal male controls. All subjects with serum creatinine >1.5mg/dl or acute illness
were excluded from the study. Serum 25 hydroxy vitamin D, fasting serum C-peptide and fasting
plasma glucose levels were measured in both study groups.
RESULTS: This study showed a significant difference between mean 25-OH vitamin D levels of
36.55ng/ml in the diabetic group and 42.96ng/ml in the control group (p= 0.001). All four 25-OH
vitamin D deficient respondents were diabetic. 43.8% of the diabetic group had a normal insulin
resistance compared to 61.8% of the control group (p = 0.054). In the diabetic group, 73.8% had
sufficient vitamin D, 21.2% had insufficient vitamin D, 5% had vitamin D deficiency. 90% of the
control group had sufficient vitamin D levels while only 10% had insufficient vitamin D levels. In the
control group, there was a significant negative correlation between 25-OH vitamin D and BMI and
fasting plasma glucose. The mean HOMA2IR value for the diabetics (3.09) is significantly higher
than controls (2.40) (p=0.655). There was a significant negative correlation between log vitamin D
and log BMI (R = -0.338, p = 0.021) in the control group.
CONCLUSIONS: The mean 25-OH vitamin D level in the diabetic group is significantly lower than
that of control group hence it could be possible that hypovitaminosis D is a major contributor to the
onset of diabetes mellitus

VITAMIN D LEVELS AND INSULIN RESISTANCE IN MALE TYPE 2 DIABETICS AT THE METABOLIC RESEARCH UNIT OF THE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE HOSPITAL, IBADAN