Investigating the Effect of Vitamin D Deficiency on Treatment Response in Children with Functional Constipation

Background: Constipation is a common childhood disease and is mostly functional. Previous studies have shown a relationship between constipation and vitamin D deficiency, but no study has examined the effect of vitamin D deficiency on the response to constipation treatment. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of vitamin D deficiency on the response to constipation treatment in children with functional constipation. Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the effect of vitamin D deficiency on the response to constipation treatment in children with functional constipation. Methods: In this cohort study, 62 children with functional constipation were divided into two equal groups: A group with vitamin D deficiency (study group) and a group without vitamin D deficiency (control group). Then, constipation treatment was performed for all patients, and the results were evaluated and compared in the two groups. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS software. Results: At the end of the second week of treatment, 74.2% of the patients in the control group responded to the treatment, which was statistically significantly higher than the study group (45.2%) (P = 0.038). Also, at the end of the second week, in the group with vitamin D deficiency, the response to the treatment in children with a vitamin D level of 10 to 29 ng/mL was statistically significantly better than in children with a vitamin D level of less than 10 ng/mL (P = 0.037). Conclusions: The results of this study showed that vitamin D deficiency has a negative effect on the response to the treatment of functional constipation in children.