high prevalence of vitamin d deficiency and adverse pregnancy outcomes in yazd, a central province of iran

background: there is a growing concern about the high prevalence of vitamin d deficiency and its relationship with variety of diseases worldwide. the objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of vitamin d deficiency and its relationship with pregnancy adverse effects in yazd. methods: this was a cross sectional study conducted among 200 nulliparous women from october 2013 to april 2014. data containing socio-demographic and personal details, vitamin d level, pregnancy complications and growth situation of newborns were collected and analyzed using mann-whitney, kruskal-wallis and pearson’s correlation coefficient by spss. p<0.05 was considered statistically significant. results: the mean serum 1, 25 (oh)2d3 concentration was 20.3±10.8 µg/l. totally, 78% of the women had less than sufficient levels. mean of vitamin d was significantly higher in natural or elective cesarean in comparison with abortion and emergency cesarean (p=0.040). risk of abortion was 3.1(1.39-6.8) and higher in severely deficient group in comparison to women with vitamin d deficiency (p=0.017) and mean of vitamin d group was significantly lower in women who had oligohydramnios or polyhydramnios complication (p=0.045). conclusion: the study findings revealed that vitamin d deficiency is prevalent in pregnant women and it is significantly associated with elevated risk for abortion, and oligohydramnios or polyhydramnios. probably, a targeted screening strategy can be suggested to detect and treat women at high risk of vitamin d deficiency in early pregnancy as a simple way to reduce the risk of these adverse pregnancy outcomes in yazd.