TY - JOUR TI - Vitamin D deficiency awareness among medical students of Unaizah College of Medicine, Qassim University, Saudi Arabia A1 - Alfayyadh, Fai Mohammed A2 - Alsouli, Amir Mohamed Abdalla A3 - A4 - JF - International Journal of Medicine in Developing Countries JO - IJMDC SN - 1658-7820 VL - 4 IS - 6 SP - 989 EP - 995 Y1 - 2020 AB - Background: Vitamin D is an essential component for maintaining and establishing body function. It is synthesized in the skin from the sunlight or is obtained from dietary supplements especially fatty fish. Vitamin D deficiency affects the majority of body functions; bone health is one among them that is majorly affected. This study aims to assess the vitamin D deficiency awareness among the medical students at Unaizah College of Medicine, Qassim University, Saudi Arabia.Methodology: This is an observational cross-sectional study conducted among the medical students at Unaizah College of Medicine, Qassim University, in the Al-Qassim province of Saudi Arabia. A self-administered, multiple-choice questionnaire was distributed among the medical students of the first-year level to the fifth-year level. Data were tabulated in Microsoft Excel and the analyses of data were carried out using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 21.Results: The mean awareness score was 9.53 (standard deviation: 2.14) out of 15 points, with poor and good awareness identified among 51.2% and 48.8% of the medical students, respectively. The most commonly known diseases attributed to vitamin D deficiency was rickets (80.7%), followed by osteomalacia (79%), while the most frequently cited foods rich in vitamin D included dairy products such as milk and cheese (74.2%) and fatty fish like tuna (49.8%). When assessing the factors associated with awareness, only increasing age showed significant influence with better awareness (T = -2.618; p = 0.040). Conclusion: Moderate awareness was found among the medical students of Unaizah College of Medicine, Qassim University, Saudi Arabia. Increasing age and being a sophomore medical student were the significant predictors of better awareness of vitamin D deficiency. PB - https://www.ijmdc.com DO - 10.24911/IJMDC.51-1589138216 UR - https://www.ijmdc.com/?mno=106219 ER -