Assessment of vitamin D and its association with cardiovascular disease risk factors in an adult migrant population: an audit of patient records at a Community Health Centre in Kensington, Melbourne, Australia

Abstract

BackgroundVitamin D deficiency is a global public health problem associated with increased risk of cardio-metabolic diseases and osteoarthritis. Migrants with dark skin settled in temperate climates are at greater risk of both vitamin D deficiency and cardiovascular diseases. This study aims to identify the risk of vitamin D deficiency and associations with cardiovascular disease in a migrant population in Australia.MethodsAn audit was carried out at a Community Health Service in Kensington, Melbourne which, services a large migrant population. Data from the clinical records of all adults who visited the medical centre at least once during the period from 1st January 2010 to 31st December 2012 was extracted. The future (10 year) coronary heart disease risk was estimated using Framingham Risk Score.ResultsThe centre has given higher priority to vitamin D testing in migrants, those middle-aged, females and those with diabetes and osteoarthritis. Migrants from countries located in lower latitude regions (Latitude N230 to S230) were 1.48 (95% C.I. 1.32-1.65) times more likely to develop vitamin D deficiency post migration and 0.44 (95% C.I. 0.31-0.62) times less likely to have a >15% 10-year risk of coronary heart disease when compared to their Australian-born counterparts.ConclusionsAdherence to a high risk strategy for vitamin D testing was observed in the centre. Pre-migration latitude is an important factor for vitamin D deficiency (lower the latitude higher the risk) and in predicting future risk of cardiovascular disease in migrants. These findings suggest that a targeted approach for vitamin D testing, including zone of origin might better identify individuals at higher risk of both vitamin D deficiency and cardiovascular disease.

Vitamin D: Emerging Risk Factor for Acute Myocardial Infarction

“…Dark skin individuals are more predisposed to hypovitaminosis D. Since most of our post-infarct patients are dark, this condition associated with inadequate eating habits may be an excuse for our findings, similar to those found in studies done in migrating families in Australia, showing that dark skinned migrants who came to temperate climates are more at risk of Vitamin D deficiency and CVD [19].…”

Vitamin D status in psychotic disorder patients and healthy controls – The influence of ethnic background

“…Another point of importance is that the risk of cardiovascular diseases and metabolic syndrome has been found to be associated with psychotic disorders (Johnsen et al, 2011;Ringen et al, 2014). Increased cardiovascular risk is also related to inadequate S-25 OH D levels (Choi et al, 2014;Menezes et al, 2014;Ruwanpathirana et al, 2014). Elevated risk of cardiovascular disease and metabolic syndrome in psychotic disorder in visible ethnic minorities has been demonstrated in long-term follow-ups (Henderson et al, 2005).…”

Efficacy of high dose Vitamin D supplementation in improving serum 25(OH)D among migrant and non migrant population: a retrospective study

“…The study was a retrospective audit of medical records. The study design has been described elsewhere [ 18 – 20 ]. Briefly an audit of patient records at a major metropolitan community health centre in the western region of Melbourne was undertaken.…”

“…In our recent study we found that vitamin D deficiency post-migration was closely linked with the region of origin [ 18 ]. Therefore it was important to control for migration status.…”