Weekly High Dose Versus Daily Low Dose Vitamin D3 in Treatment of Vitamin D3 Deficiency in Pregnancy: A Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial

To compare administration of weekly high dose versus daily low dose vitamin D in treatment of vitamin D deficiency in pregnancy. A randomized controlled clinical trial was performed between July 2016 until 2 July 2017 on 215 pregnant women with vitamin D deficiency (serum levels < 30 ng/ml) and gestational age less than 14 weeks. The participants were randomly assigned to 2 treatment groups of A: receiving 1000 unit vitamin D daily, and B: 50,000 units weekly for 10 weeks. At 24-28 weeks of gestation, serum levels of vitamin D were measured again. Data entry and statistical analysis were performed by SPSS software v. 20 and P value less than 0.05 was considered as statistically significant level. Primary mean serum vitamin D3 level in group A was: 17.3 ± 6.8 and in group B: 15.2 ± 7.3 ng/ml while mean serum vitamin D3 level after treatment in group A was significantly lower than group B (31.9 ± 118 B vs. 42.9 ± 15.5, p-value: < 0.001); both groups were successfully treated, no remarkable side effects were observed in either groups. As both regimens treat vitamin D deficiency successfully and consuming weekly high dose vitamin D makes more acceptable serum levels for mothers with no apparent side effects weekly high dose vitamin D can be safely administered for vitamin D deficiency in pregnancy, if further studies show similar results.