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Background: Epidemiological studies suggest a link between vitamin D deficiency in early life and development of asthma in later life. Aim: The aim of this study was to measure serum vitamin D levels in asthmatic children and to compare these to healthy non-asthmatic controls. Methods: Asthmatic (n = 483) and healthy control (n = 483) children were recruited from the Pediatric Allergy-Immunology Clinics of Hamad General Hospital and the Primary Health Care Clinics in Qatar from October 2009 to July 2010. All children were below 16 years of age and asthma was diagnosed by a physician. Parents of all children completed extensive questionnaires documenting demographics, child’s feeding practice and vitamin D intake. Serum vitamin D (25-hydroxyvitamin D), calcium, phosphorus, alkaline phosphatase, magnesium, creatinine and parathyroid hormone assays were performed. Subjects with serum containing less than 20 ng/ml vitamin D were deemed deficient. Results: Asthmatic children had significantly reduced serum vitamin D levels compared to non-asthmatic children (p < 0.001); 68.1% of all asthmatics were vitamin D deficient. Asthmatic children had significantly higher degrees of moderate (41.8 vs. 25.1%) and severe (26.3 vs. 11.0%) vitamin D deficiency compared to healthy controls (p < 0.001). Positive familial history of vitamin D deficiency (35.6%, p = 0.005) and asthma (36.4%, p = 0.009) were significantly higher in asthmatic children. Along with vitamin D deficiency, asthmatics also had reduced phosphorus (p < 0.001) and magnesium (p = 0.001) levels but elevated serum alkaline phosphatase (p < 0.001) and IgE (p < 0.001). The majority of asthmatic children had less exposure to sunlight (66.7%, p = 0.006) and less physical activity (71.3%, p < 0.001). Vitamin D deficiency was the strongest predictor of asthma in this population (OR 4.82; 95% CI 2.41–8.63, p < 0.001). Conclusion: The present study revealed that the majority of asthmatic children had vitamin D deficiency compared to control children. Vitamin D deficiency was the major predictor of asthma in Qatari children.

Aim. The aim was to compare body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), waist hip ratio (WHR), and waist height ratio (WHtR) to identify the best predictor of metabolic syndrome (MetS) among Qatari adult population. Methods. A cross-sectional survey from April 2011 to December 2012. Data was collected from 1552 participants followed by blood sampling. MetS was defined according to Third Adult Treatment Panel (ATPIII) and International Diabetes Federation (IDF). Receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve analysis was performed. Results. Among men, WC followed by WHR and WHtR yielded the highest area under the curve (AUC) (0.78; 95% CI 0.74–0.82 and 0.75; 95% CI 0.71–0.79, resp.). Among women, WC followed by WHtR yielded the highest AUC (0.81; 95% CI 0.78–0.85 & 0.79; 95% CI 0.76–0.83, resp.). Among men, WC at a cut-off 99.5 cm resulted in the highest Youden index with sensitivity 81.6% and 63.9% specificity. Among women, WC at a cut-off 91 cm resulted in the highest Youden index with the corresponding sensitivity and specificity of 86.5% and 64.7%, respectively. BMI had the lowest sensitivity and specificity in both genders. Conclusion. WC at cut-off 99.5 cm in men and 91 cm in women was the best predictor of MetS in Qatar.

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