Abstract

Objectives: the research aims to detect the awareness of level of vitamin D in females and to identify the risk factors of vitamin D deficiency in female students.
Methodology: cross-sectional study covered a number of females in governmental high schools in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in the academic year 2014; 200 female students from 6 governmental high schools were selected randomly.
Results: knowledge about sunlight as a source of vitamin D is high with 82.50%. Knowledge about vitamin D deficiency causing generalized pain is estimated with 45%.
Conclusion: proportion of vitamin D deficiency among participants was high. Despite the good knowledge that sun is the major source of vitamin D, the practice of sunlight exposure was not enough among high school students. Also the practice of supplementation was below expectation. We recommend motivation to take action regarding vitamin D status and to increase exposure time to sunlight.

Key words: Vitamin D, deficiency, female students