DOI: https://doi.org/10.36347/sjams.2024.v12i11.029

Pages: 1617-1622

Background: Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are the most common bacterial infections during pregnancy. Pregnant women in Bangladesh often suffer from UTIs due to a lack of knowledge regarding proper hygiene practices. Adequate vitamin D levels have the potential to enhance the innate immune response, thereby can reduce susceptibility to bacterial infections. Therefore, vitamin D deficiency in pregnant women could increase the risk of urinary tract infections. Aim: To determine the association between maternal serum vitamin D levels and urinary tract infection in pregnancy. Method: This was a case-control study among purposively selected pregnant women attending the inpatient and outpatient department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, ICMH, Matuail, Dhaka. A total 80 pregnant women between 18-40 years of age were included in this study at their 6-28 weeks of gestation. Among them 40 women who had urinary tract infection, confirmed by presence of ≥105/HPF pus cell in urine routine microscopic examination and a positive urine culture report, were considered as the cases and the rest of the 40 age and gestational age-matched healthy pregnant women without UTI were enrolled as the controls. Aseptically, 5 mL of venous blood was drawn to measure maternal serum vitamin D levels. Statistical analysis was done using the latest version of analytic software SPSS, where required. Results: Among 40 case respondents, Escherichia coli was found to be the most prevalent (60.0%) cause of UTI, with an average maternal serum vitamin D level of 20.5±11.94 ng/ml among those cases. The overall mean (±SD) vitamin D level was much lower among the cases than the controls, 21.1±11.25 ng/mL and 27.9±9.58 ng/ml, respectively. This difference was found statistically significant p=0.004). Considering vitamin D level of 30 ng/mL as the cut-off value, odd’s ratio calculation showed the mother with serum vitamin D level <30 ng/mL had 3.2 times more risk to develop UTI compared to those ...