Home > Prevalence of and Factors Associated With Vitamin D Deficiency Among Afghan Adolescents Diagnosed at a Tertiary Healthcare Facility in Kabul, Afghanistan
Prevalence of and Factors Associated With Vitamin D Deficiency Among Afghan Adolescents Diagnosed at a Tertiary Healthcare Facility in Kabul, Afghanistan
Background: Vitamin D, also known as the sunshine vitamin, is formed in the skin from exposure to sunlight, and is absorbed from foods as well. It is important for calcium absorption and bone growth. Vitamin D status is linked to the pathogenesis of skeletal and non-skeletal disorders. Vitamin D deficiency is relatively prevalent all over the world. In studies conducted in other countries, adolescents are thought to have increased risk of vitamin D deficiency. Still, data is lacking about the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency among healthy Afghan adolescents. Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of and to identify factors associated with vitamin D deficiency and severe vitamin D deficiency among Afghan adolescents (10-18 years of age) diagnosed at French Medical Institute for Mothers and Children (FMIC), Kabul. Material and Methods: An analytical cross-sectional study design was conducted from Jun to Sep 2016. Blood samples were obtained, serum 25OHD levels were measured, and the patients were divided into five diagnostic categories according to their serum 25OHD concentrations. 1) Sufficiency ≥30-100 ng/ml; 2) Insufficiency ≥20-30 ng/ml; 3) Deficiency <20 ng>/ml; 4) Severe deficiency <10 ng>/ml; 5) Intoxication >150 ng/ml. Collection of samples were made at Clinical Laboratory of FMIC and serum 25OHD analyses were carried out in the Biochemistry section. Results: A total of 308 adolescents were part of the sample for the final analysis. Of all, 202 (65.6%) were females and 106 (34.5%) were males. Out of total, 238 (77.3%) had either insufficiency, deficiency or severe deficiency of vitamin D. Among those, a large number of the participantss i.e., 107 (34.7%) had severe vitamin D deficiency, 81 (26.3%) had vitamin D deficiency, 50 (16.2%) had vitamin D insufficiency, and only 70 (22.7%) had vitamin D sufficiency. There were two cases of vitamin D intoxication, who were excluded from the study. Gender, sun-exposure, usage of sun protector, calcium+vitamin D supplement intake, Vitamin D rich foods intake, regular milk intake, the type of living in yards or apartments, skin colour of participants, and BMI were found as significant factors associated with vitamin D level Conclusion: There was a high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency among adolescents who visited a tertiary healthcare facility in Kabul. Low serum vitamin D concentration is prevalent among general Afghan population. Screening and ongoing investigation for vitamin D deficiency should be considered for all adolescents in the country. Based on our results, the
ایسا ہی ایک ناول جس میں پس ماندگی کے مظاہرنظر آتے ہیں۔اس میں ’’فائر ایریا‘‘ازالیاس احمد گدی بھی اپنی مثال آپ ہے۔ناول میں مصنف نے مزدوروں کے ساتھ ہونے والے سلوک کو پیش کیاہے۔بھوک کو موضوع بنایا ہے یہ بھوک ہی ہے جو اس قدرتڑپ پیدا کرتی ہے کہ ایک انسان مفید اور مضر کے معنی بھول جاتا ہے۔وہ بس یہی خیال کرتاہے کہ کس طرح سے انھیں اپنے پیٹ کی آگ کو بجھانا ہے۔بغور مطالعہ کیا جائے توہندوستان میں صدیوں سے ذات پات کا نظام چلتا آرہا ہے۔آج کے دور میں بھی ذات پات کا نظام اور اس کے اثرات دیہات اور خاص طور پر نچلے اور مڈل کلاس طبقے میں نظر آتے ہیں اور اسی نظام نے زندگی کو خاشیے پہ لا کھڑا کیا ہے۔مزدوروں کے ساتھ خصوصاً نارواسلوک رکھا جاتا ہے۔اگر کہیں کوئی آواز بلند کی بھی گئی تو ان آوازوں کو دبا دیا گیا۔یوں کہاجائے تو غلط نہ ہوگاکہ یہ آوازیں انھی طبقوں نے بلند کی تھیں جنہوں نے خود مزدوروں کا استحصال کرنے میں کوئی کسر نہ اٹھا رکھی تھی اور آج جب ان آوازوں کو دبا دیا گیا تو قلم کی طاقت سے ہی یہ حق ادا کرنے کی کوشش کی گئی ہے۔اردوادب میں بھی متوسط اور نچلے طبقوں پر مزدوروں کے ساتھ ہونے والے اس برے سلوک اور خاص طور پر کس مپرسی کی زندگی پر آواز بلند کی گئی ہے۔مختلف افسانے لکھے گئے اور ڈراموں میں بھی اس موضوع پر بحث کرتے ہوئے اداکار نظر آئے مگر بات اداکاری پہ ہی ختم ہوگئی۔لوگوںکے دلوں میں خلش ہی رہ گئی۔اس سلسلے کی ایک کڑی ہمیں ’’فائر ایریا‘‘کی صورت میں نظر آئی۔ناول پڑھتے ہوئے قاری اس زندگی کو محسوس کرتا ہے جہاں ایک عام انسان اپنا دم گھٹتا محسوس کرتا ہے اور ناول میں...
The global economy is experiencing a crisis due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the stock market index has collapsed. The rupiah exchange rate against the USA dollar weakened this was due to the large number of foreign investors leaving the Indonesian financial market, the stock market plummeted. The banking sector can carry out an economic stimulus given restructuring authority for all credit or financing without requiring restrictions on the credit ceiling or type of debtor, especially debtors for MSMEs and informal workers. The economic stimulus that needs to be maximized is prundential monetary and macro policies through lowering interest rates and maintaining stability in the rupiah exchange rate. Budget relocation is also enforced to maintain the availability of basic foodstuffs for the community, which has increased due to panic buying or market panic. Also providing assistance to increase people's purchasing power.
Disease associated risk factors in premenopausal women includes professional and household stresses. While in post menopausal women the major factor is sedentary life style. Physiological characteristic have shown that the major risks associated with the aggressiveness of tumor are the receptor status especially triple negative (ER, PR and her2/neu) in both premenopausal and post menopausal women. Techniques of ELISA SEC, HPLC were tried to find out the method for estimation of the level of MUCI/CA15- 3 that showed an early detection and that was also economical. Computational protein modeling was used to predict secondary structure of MUC1. Predicted secondary structure of MUC1/CA 15-3 contains 6.0% helix, 7.9% strand or β-pleated sheet and 86.1% loop. Percentage composition shows an increased number of alanine, proline, serine, tyrosine, valine and glycine in helix, strand and turn or loop structure that indicates its basic and hydrophobic characteristics. MUC1/CA 15-3 comprises of an extracellular domain and a membrane associated domain. A junction of 3 amino acid units i.e. Cys-Gln-Cys between the extracellular subunit and transmembrane subunit is also observed. This motif is necessary for surface expression. The extracellular subunit consists of a tandem repeat unit that consist 20 amino acid residues i.e sapdnkpags and tappahgvts. This region of MUC1 may be used as vaccine for breast cancer. The subcellular subunit of MUC1 mainly consists of immunodominant DTR motif at 922 postion of the domain, is haeavily glycosylated and may protect the cell from any of the foreign body or tumor cell. The other subunit of MUC1/CA 15-3 consists of 17 amino acid residues. This subunit is associated with the plasma membrane. xixPost translational modifications (glycosylation, phosphorylation and myristoylation) are mainly observed in extracellular subunit. Several phosphorylation sites, Myristoylation sites and some glycosylation sites of tandem repeat region were predicted in MUC1/CA 15-3. It was observed that due to these modifications, the protein performed different functions. Alignment of the sequence of MUC1/CA 15-3 with the other family member of mucins (MUC2- MUC12) shows highest homology of MUC1/CA 15-3 with MUC4. The property of breast tumor to produce mucinous antigen was used for the synthesis of vaccine using the experimental mice. Electrophoretic technique was used to confirm the production of antibody that may be effective against antigen of MUC1/CA 15-3. The conclusion is that CA 15-3 is a transmembrane glycoprotein having basic and hydrophobic charecterstics. The most important part of this protein is extracellular and transmembrane subunits. These subunits of protein undergo posttranslational modification and are important in immunization and vaccine formation.