Research Article Epidemic of Vitamin D Deficiency and Its Management: Awareness among Indian Medical Undergraduates Yangshen Lhamo, 1 Preeta Kaur Chugh, 2 Sandhya R. Gautam, 2 and C. D. Tripathi 2 1 Department of Pharmacology, North DMC Medical College & Hindu Rao Hospital, New Delhi, India 2 Department of Pharmacology, Vardhman Mahavir Medical College & Safdarjung Hospital, New Delhi, India Correspondence should be addressed to Preeta Kaur Chugh; docpreeta@yahoo.com Received 27 December 2016; Accepted 28 March 2017; Published 3 April 2017 Academic Editor: Sina Dobaradaran Copyright © 2017 Yangshen Lhamo et al. Tis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Vitamin D defciency is prevalent across all age groups in epidemic proportions. Te purpose of this study was to acquire a baseline assessment and create awareness among medical students regarding vitamin D. A cross-sectional, voluntary survey was conducted among undergraduate medical students. Data were collected using a questionnaire which assessed the level of knowledge students had with regard to where vitamin D comes from, what it does for health, how much is recommended, factors that afect its levels, and defciency management. Majority of students were unaware that vitamin D defciency has attained epidemic proportions. Tough bone and skeletal disorders as a complication of vitamin D defciency were known, a large number were unaware of systemic consequences (diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular diseases, and cancers). Only one-third of respondents were aware of duration and timing of sun exposure required for adequate serum vitamin D levels. However, we observed lack of awareness among students regarding the various biochemical forms, dose, and duration of vitamin D supplementation for treatment of nutritional defciency. Our study highlighted a lack of knowledge about the importance of vitamin D, worldwide prevalence of vitamin D defciency, and its management among medical students. Promoting vitamin D health awareness, if replicated across populations, could lead to positive health outcomes globally. 1. Introduction Vitamin D defciency is a worldwide epidemic and yet, it is a problem that is largely unknown by majority of population [1]. Widespread prevalence in all age groups including toddlers, school children, men, women, elderly, pregnant women, and their neonates in both rural and urban areas has been documented [2]. Young adults are also potentially at high-risk for vitamin D defciency. During childhood, this defciency can cause growth retardation and skeletal deformities, while in adults, muscle weakness and fractures may ensue [3, 4]. In addition to its importance for bone health, recent evidence suggests that vitamin D is also useful in promoting cardiovascular health and preventing chronic diseases (diabetes mellitus, autoimmune disorders, and various cancers) [5, 6]. One of the major reasons for the worldwide spread of this nutritional disorder has been lack of awareness about the importance of vitamin D, its health benefts, and prevention of defcient states across populations [7–9]. It has been suggested that awareness and educational campaigns about vitamin D at the community level targeting both general and high-risk populations could help prevent long-term health consequences [10]. Primary education targeting younger populations is known to increase the likelihood of positive health behaviour that persists throughout and protect from disease development and progression later in life [11, 12]. Apart from targeting young adults at the community level, young medical students also need to be a focus for group interventions, as staggeringly low rates of awareness have been reported among them [13]. Selection of young medical students in this study provides a twofold opportunity of targeting a section of the general population that would also be future health providers of the community. Medical students are an integral part of future health-related progress of the community at large and should therefore be the Hindawi Journal of Environmental and Public Health Volume 2017, Article ID 2517207, 7 pages https://doi.org/10.1155/2017/2517207