Statistical analysis:

Data of the 84 ESRD patients were transferred into computerized database form and checked for errors or inconsistency with the aid of Microsoft excel 2007, program for windows. Data management and statistical analysis were performed by SPSS (statistical package for social sciences) version 20, for windows software. Descriptive statistics for continuous variables; age, weight, Calcium level, PO4, uric acid, cholesterol, Albumin, Ca dose, 1 alpha and vitD3 level, were presented as mean and standard deviation (SD), while for categorical variables; sex, virology, exercise, and vitD3 categories (sufficient, insufficient and deficient), were presented as frequencies and percentages (%). ANOVA test (F) test was used to assess the significance of association between vitD3 and the continuous variables, distributed by three categories of vit. D3 level. Students t test was used to compare sufficient and insufficient groups. Chi square test was used to assess the significance of association of VitD3 categories with other categorical variables, Fisher exact test was used alternatively when chi square couldnt be applied. Level of significance was two tailed and set at P0.05 to be considered as significant. Results were presented in tables and figures with an explanatory paragraph for each table and figure.

Results
Table 1. Characteristics of patients (N=84)
Variable Sex Age Weight Duration VitD3 level Corrected Ca PO4 Uric acid Cholesterol Albumin Ca Dose 1 alpha Virology Negative Positive 0 Exercise 1 2 3 Male Female 49.82 12.94 68.8 17.5 24.8 20.8 33.02 7.2 8.6 1.4 3.9 1.4 6.1 2.4 149.9 39.2 3.0 0.8 1082.1 389 1.97 1.01 29 (34.5) 55 (65.5) 4 (4.8) 18 (21.4) 22 (26.2) 40 (47.6) mean SD n (%) 44 (52.4) 40 (47.6)

70 60 Number of patients 50 40 30 20 10 0 Sufficient Insufficient Deficient 27.4% 1.2% 71.4%

Figure 1. Frequency distribution of Vit.D3 level of patients by categories.

Table 2. Correlation between patients parameters and Vit.D3 level distributed by categories. (N=84)
Parameter (mean) Age (years) Weight (kg) Corrected Ca PO4 Uric acid Cholesterol Albumin Duration Ca Dose 1 alpha Vit. D3 categories Sufficient 49.92 69.9 8.55 3.74 6.00 148.5 3.12 28.0 1120 1.93 Insufficient 50.95 66.7 8.66 4.09 6.19 153.3 2.80 16.3 978 1.96 Deficient 18.3 56.1 9.30 5.70 7.30 151 3.0 24 1200 3.00 P value sufficient vs. insufficient 0.74 0.43 0.75 0.31 0.76 0.62 0.034 [sig] 0.022 [sig] 0.14 0.91 P.value comparison of 3 groups 0.045 [sig] 0.54 0.83 0.25 0.83 0.88 0.18 0.07 0.26 0.59

Table 3. Correlation of vitamin D3 level with gender , virology, and exercise among study group (N=84).
Vit D3 categories Variables Sufficient
N %

Insufficient
N %

Deficient
N %

P sufficient P vs. all groups insufficient

Sex

Male Female

32 28 17 43 3 12 16 29

72.7 70.0 58.6 78.2 75.0 66.7 72.7 72.5

11 12 12 11 1 6 6 10

25.0 30.0 41.4 20.0 25.0 33.3 27.3 25.0

1 0 0 1 0 0 0 1

2.3 0.81 0.0 0.0 0.041 1.8 0.0 0.0 0.94 0.96 0.0 2.5 0.043 [sig] 0.57

Virology

Positive Negative

Exercise

0 1 2 3

35 30 er of patients 25 20 Male

15

45 40 35 Number of patients 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 Sufficient Insufficient Deficient Negative Positive