valentineghanem-bit/vitamin-d-ghana-review

Narrative review of Vitamin D status and deficiency determinants in Ghana # Vitamin D Status in Ghana: A Systematic Review with Meta-Analysis of Prevalence, Comorbidity Signals, and Evidence Gaps **Author:** Valentine Golden Ghanem **Affiliation:** Ghana COCOBOD Cocoa Clinic, Accra, Ghana **ORCID:** 0009-0002-8332-0220 **Reporting standard:** PRISMA 2020 **OSF registration:** doi.org **Release:** v1.1.0 ## 1. What This Repository Contains This repository supports a PRISMA 2020 systematic review with meta-analysis of vitamin D status in Ghana. The review includes 17 eligible peer-reviewed studies. VDD prevalence could be extracted from 9 independent analytic rows comprising 1,609 participants. Seven rows comprising 1,153 participants contributed descriptive mean 25(OH)D data. The random-effects pooled VDD prevalence is **55.3%** (95% CI 35.5-75.2; I2=99.0%). The mean 25(OH)D estimate is **25.1 ng/mL** (95% CI 12.7-37.5) among rows with usable mean data. ## 2. Quantitative Synthesis Rules The quantitative synthesis follows prespecified compatibility rules: - Asare 2017 reports vitamin D mean values but no VDD prevalence. - Sakyi 2022 reports RA/control 25VD means with a printed pg/mL unit and no VDD prevalence. - Dzudzor 2023 reports chronic liver disease vitamin D as median/IQR and no VDD prevalence. - Fondjo 2022 is treated as a median/IQR psychiatric-patient study with treatment-active VDD prevalence, not as a mean/SD row. - Fondjo 2018 VDD prevalence is retained, but its 25(OH)D mean is converted from the source's nmol/L table rather than treated as ng/mL. The repository therefore reports pooled estimates only where a compatible denominator, outcome definition and independent analytic row were available. Formal spatial-cluster inference and prediction modelling are outside the inferential scope of this evidence base. ## 3. Key Findings | Metric | Value | |---|---| | Eligible studies | 17 | | Eligible VDD prevalence rows | 9 | | VDD prevalence analytic N | 1,609 | | Random-effects VDD prevalence | 5 …