Objective

To determine the interrelationships among lack of compliance, multi-vitamin treatment adherence, and serum levels of 25-OH vitamin D among women with Roux-en-Y bariatric surgery in the UNEME of Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico.

Methods

This is an analytical and transversal study on women with Roux-en-Y bariatric surgery (GCa, n=13) with morbid obesity (GOM, n=13), and apparently healthy women (GCo, n=13). After the corresponding written informed consents, in a first appointment, the medical record, the anthropometric assessment, and the administration of the instrument were performed, while in a second appointment, blood samples were taken in order to measure the vitamin D levels. The assessment instrument was validated through a Cohen Kappa greater than 80% and a Cronbach Alpha of 1. Student’s t test and two-tailed, p<0.05 ANOVAS were calculated.

Results

While a lack of adherence to multi-vitamin treatment was found in 85% of the women, a lack of post-surgical follow-up, including micro-nutrients lab tests, was found in 100%. A statistically significant difference between the mean vitamin D levels of women with and without multi-vitamin treatment adherence was found (p<0.05, CI 95%).

Conclusions

It was demonstrated that the lack of adherence to multi-vitamin treatments is a vitamin D deficiency risk factor among patients with Roux-en-Y bariatric surgery.