Relationship of Vitamin D Serum Level With Intrauterine Growth Retardation in Pregnant Women

Intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR) is a major problem in midwifery medicine for which no effective treatment has been established. This problem has been associated with significant morbidity and mortality, as well as perinatal mortality. IUGR could be prevented when the treatment is administered before the occurance of irreversible changes. Hence appropriate methods for early detection and successful treatment deem necessary. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship of vitamin D serum level with IUGR in pregnant women.

This nested case-control study was conducted on pregnant women who had referred to Fatemieh hospital during 2016. Each of case and control groups included 130 pregnant women. Serum levels of vitamin D were tested in the blood samples obtained from the participants. At the end of the study, all data were analyzed in SPSS software version 16, and χ2 , Fisher exact and t tests were utilized for data analyses. Level of 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Our results showed that the average age, body mass index at the beginning of the pregnancy, blood group, employment status, and education level were not significantly different between the two groups. Moreover, average serum levels of vitamin D were about 14.74 ng/L and 25.34 ng/L in the case and control groups, respectively. In those with vitamin D deficiency, the chance of IUGR was higher compared to those who had sufficient levels of vitamin D (6.27 times). Therefore, women who had vitamin D deficiency, had almost 6 times more chance of IUGR incidence compared to the women with adequate levels of vitamin D (P<0.05).

The results verified that serum levels of vitamin D can affect the risk of IUGR; therefore, the incidence of IUGR in babies whose mothers have enough vitamin D level during pregnancy is lower than that in other babies.