Vitamin D status and cardiometabolic disease risk among healthy adults of Northern Ghana

Cardiometabolic Disease (CMD) is a cluster of conditions that increase the risk for cardiovascular events, but its relationship with vitamin D status has not been studied in Ghana. A cross-sectional study design was conducted to investigate the relationship between serum vitamin D status and CMD risk (obesity, type 2 diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and dyslipidemia) among 302 apparently healthy adults, aged 25 to 59 and of northern decent in Ghana. Biochemical analysis was done to determine serum total cholesterol (TC), Triglycerides (TG), High Density Lipoprotein (HDL), Low Density Lipoprotein (LDL), Fasting Blood Glucose (FBG), Glycated Haemoglobin (HbA1c) and serum vitamin D levels of participants. Anthropometric assessment was also done and BMI, WC, HC, Blood Pressure, WHR, Body Fat (BF) and visceral fat percentages were obtained. Analysis was done using SPSS (version 25). We evaluated CMD risk factors to predict vitamin D status using binary and multiple linear logistics regression analysis. Similar between gender, participants mean age was 38.78years (SD 10.42years). The females had higher BMI (24.31 SD 7.96 versus 22.52 SD 3.07 kgm2, p=0.006), % total body fat (24.31 SD 7.96 versus 22.52 SD 3.07%, p=0.001), WC (24.31 SD 7.96 versus 22.52 SD 3.07 inches, p=0.002), and HC (24.31 SD 7.96 versus 22.52 SD 3.07, p=0.002 inches) than the males, while the males had higher mean total cholesterol (5.74 SD 1.02 versus 3.57 SD 1.02) and LDL (5.40 SD 1.05, verse 3.22 SD 1.09, p=0.005) than the females. Serum vitamin D levels was significantly associated with age (p= 0.047) but not gender (p=0.349). Overall, 6.4% of participants had CMD, representing 10.2% of the females, and no male. Multivariate analysis reveals gender, average BP, FBG, and % total body fat to significantly affect serum vitamin D concentrations. Seven percent (7%) of participants were serum vitamin D deficient (VDD) and 28.5% had serum vitamin D insufficiency (VDI), similar by gender, but increased with age (p=0.047). Both mean SBP (P<0.0001) and DBP (p<0.0001) increased with VDD, while means of FBS (p=0.032), BMI (p=0.004), HbA1c (p=0.040), and LDL (p=0.047) are highest in the VDD group and least in the Vitamin D Sufficient (VDS) group. Binary Logistic regression showed participants with high SBP (OR= 0.055; 95% CI= 0.008-0.361; p= 0.003) and high FBS (OR= 0.076; 95% CI= 0.014-0.404; p= 0.002) had increased odds of VDD compared with normal levels of SBP and FBS. Multiple logistics regression showed FBG, TG, LDL and WC significantly predicted CMD. In conclusion, CMD risk factors were common among the participants and more than a third were vitamin D deficient or insufficient. Individual CMD risk factors increased with vitamin D deficiency, but CMD did not predict serum vitamin D status.