WHAT DOCTORS AND NURSES IN SAUDI ARABIA KNOW, HOW THEY FEEL, AND WHAT THEY DO TO KEEP BABIES FROM NOT GETTING ENOUGH VITAMIN D

Abstract

Objectives: To find out what doctors and nurses in Saudi Arabia know, how they feel, and what they do when it comes to vitamin D supplements. How it works: In the Tabuk area of Saudi Arabia, between January 2015 and December 2016, a cross-sectional survey was given to health care professionals. A questionnaire was sent to 100 health care professionals to find out what they knew, how they felt, and what they did to prevent vitamin D shortage. Results: Most people knew how important it was to get enough vitamin D, and overall, practices were good. The knowledge score ranged from 2 to 7, with 475 being the average. This was mostly because 85% of people who answered thought that being in the sun between 6 and 7 am was the best time. Also, people didn't understand that even 10 minutes of contact can be helpful. This study shows how important it is for as many people as possible in KSA to know about the advice to take vitamin D supplements. This study shows that doctors and nurses know how important it is to treat vitamin D deficiency. It was found that people didn't know enough about sun exposure. So, getting this information out to a clinical population that is open to it is going to have a big effect on their work. Every year, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) gets more than 3,600 hours of sunlight with a high UV index. Even so, a lot of people in this country and others in the Middle East don't get enough vitamin D.1-6Between 40 and 80% of babies born in KSA don't have any vitamin D amounts that can be measured.6This paradox might be explained by cultural and sociological factors, like breastfeeding for a long time without taking vitamin D supplements and women not getting enough sun because they wear clothes that cover their bodies7.Babies born to moms who don't get enough vitamin D are much more likely to get rickets. The American Academy of Paediatricians says that people should get 400 IU of vitamin D every day.8King Saud University released this year the first vitamin D supplementation guidelines for KSA. These guidelines were made possible by a joint effort between the European Society for Clinical and Economic Aspects of Osteoporosis (ESCEO) and local experts.9,10This group suggested that both mothers and babies take 1000 to 2000 IU of vitamin D every day as a safe and doable choice.10 and agreed that 90–100% of pregnant women in KSA don't get enough vitamin D.11 Since there aren't any national standards, there has been a lot of variation in how doctors in KSA feel about vitamin D supplements. The healthcare professionals in the Dammam area were found to be positive about vitamin D supplements in a recent study.12But this study also showed that healthcare professionals could improve what they know and how they do their jobs. Out of the 93 doctors they enrolled, only 30% knew a lot about vitamin D, and only 60% usually prescribed supplements. This study didn't look into the basic reasons why the rate of vitamin D prescriptions might vary. If the number of people in KSA who don't get enough vitamin D is to go down, clinicians must follow the rules set out in the most recent suggestions. We also looked into what we knew about being exposed to sunshine. A lot of information is known about how vitamin D3 is made at different times of the day and in different parts of Saudi Arabia, both in the summer and the winter.13,14The standards take these numbers into account while also pointing out that UVB exposure raises the risk of skin cancer. They suggest getting some sun three to four times a week, between 9:00 and 10:30 in the summer and between 10:00 and 15:00 in the winter.10We polled health care professionals in the Tabuk region to find out what they knew, how they felt, and what they did about vitamin D supplements, as well as what might have caused any differences we saw. We specifically looked at the idea that better attitudes and behaviours about vitamin D supplementation would be linked to better knowledge of vitamin D biology and the causes and effects of vitamin D shortage.

How to Cite