Bridging the Gap: Knowledge, Awareness, and Practices on Vitamin D Deficiency among Adolescent and Young Adults – A Cross-Sectional Study
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Background: Vitamin D deficiency is a significant public health issue, impacting bone health, immune function, and overall well-being. Despite abundant sunlight in Saudi Arabia, deficiency rates remain high, potentially due to limited sun exposure, cultural practices, and low dietary intake of vitamin D. University students are a key demographic for assessing public health awareness and behaviors related to vitamin D. This study aimed to assess the knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) related to vitamin D deficiency among Jazan University students, and to identify demographic factors influencing these aspects. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 429 students at Jazan University, Saudi Arabia, from March to June 2024. Data on KAP regarding vitamin D deficiency were collected via a validated bilingual online questionnaire. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS version 26, employing descriptive statistics and multivariate logistic regression to evaluate demographic predictors of KAP scores. Results: Among the participants, 47.3% exhibited high knowledge, 55% demonstrated high awareness, and 45.6% had high practice levels concerning vitamin D deficiency. Female students had significantly higher KAP scores than males (p < 0.01), and health college students showed greater knowledge and awareness than their non-health peers (p < 0.05). Multivariate analysis confirmed that gender was a significant predictor, with females displaying higher odds of better outcomes across all domains (Knowledge: AOR 2.66, 95% CI 1.73–4.07; Awareness: AOR 3.0, 95% CI 1.94–4.62; Practices: AOR 1.65, 95% CI 1.10–2.49). Conclusions: The findings highlight a need for targeted educational programs and routine screening initiatives to address vitamin D deficiency among young adults. Public health strategies should prioritize awareness campaigns across all academic disciplines to improve vitamin D literacy and mitigate deficiency-related health risks.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".