Çocuklarda D Vitamini Profilaksisini Etkileyen Faktörler.

Background: Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin that has an important role in maintaining calcium and phosphorus balance in our body, especially in the bone and skeletal system. It is known that vitamin D level is low in developing countries such as Turkey, while it should be normal or high, especially in people in sun-rich regions. Vitamin D prophylaxis in Turkey is recommended by the Ministry of Health to be given regularly for up to 12 months. However, we observed that some of the patients who applied to pediatric outpatient clinics did not comply with vitamin D prophylaxis. The aim of this study is to identify children who do not comply with vitamin D prophylaxis, to determine the reasons for not complying with prophylaxis, and to urge them to use vitamin D prophylaxis more effectively. Materials and Methods: Children between the ages of 0-12 months who applied to the Pediatric Health and Diseases outpatient clinic were evaluated, and a questionnaire was applied to the parents of a total of 405 children. Analyzes were evaluated in SPSS 26 package program. Chi-square analysis was used to compare categorical variables between groups. The statistical significance level in the analyzes was accepted as p<0.05. Results: While 90.9% of parents use vitamin D regularly for their babies, 6.4% use it irregularly, 2.7% do not use it at all. 77.3% of parents started using vitamin D for their children within 15-30 days after birth. The use of vitamin D for children was recommended by a physician to 98.5% of the parents. Of the parents who never used vitamin D for their children, 7 stated that it was too early to use it, and 1 stated that they did not use it because the baby's fontanelle was small. Of the parents who do not use it regularly, 10 stated that they stopped using it because of side effects, 5 because of neglect, and 4 because they ran out of vitamins. There was no statistically significant difference in the use of vitamin D according to the mother's job status, the education of the parents and the monthly income of the family. 92.0% of the parents who were recommended to use vitamin D for their baby by a physician and 16.7% of those who were not recommended to use vitamin D used vitamin D (p<0.001) Conclusions: In our study, it was determined that vitamin D was highly recommended by health professionals and although the rate of use was also high, it was determined that some parents either never used vitamin D in their babies or did not use it regularly. Reasons such as side effects of vitamin D, neglect of parents and thinking that it is too early to start vitamin D have led to not using vitamin D. It is suggested that physicians' recommendation of vitamin D prophylaxis is effective and therefore physicians should emphasize prophylaxis more frequently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]