Review Article
Vitamin D and Chronic Pain in Immigrant and Ethnic Minority Patients—Investigation of the Relationship and Comparison with Native Western Populations
Table 1
Characteristics of included studies.
| Reference | Study type | Location | Condition | Study population | Numbers of immigrant/ethnic minority patients with painful conditions and data on vitamin D levels | Mean 25-OH vitamin D (ng/mL) in immigrant/ethnic minority patients | Outcome of vitamin D treatment |
| Lowenthal and Shany 1994 [23] | Case series | Beer Sheva, Israel | Osteomalacia (with bone pain) | Bedouin Arab women (an ethnic minority in Israel) | 12 | 4.1 | | Nellen et al.1996 [21] | Case series | Amsterdam, Netherlands | Hypovitaminosis D osteopathy (with musculoskeletal pain) | Immigrant women | 6 | 8.1 | Symptoms resolved in all patients | Plotnikoff and Quigley 2003 [24] | Cross-sectional study | Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA | Musculoskeletal pain | Immigrant and nonimmigrant patients | 83 | 12.4 | | De Torrenté de la Jara et al. 2004 [22] | Case series | Lausanne, Switzerland | Hypovitaminosis D (with musculoskeletal pain) | Female asylum seekers | 11 | 4.4 | Pain disappeared in 10/11 within three months and in all patients within seven months | Benson et al. 2006 [3] | Case-control study | Adelaide, Australia | Muscle pain | Australian Aborigines | 8 | 16.4 | | Helliwell et al. 2006 [25] | Case-control study | Leeds, UK | Musculoskeletal pain | Patients of South Asian ethnicity | 127 | 6.9 | | Bartley 2008 [26] | Cross-sectional study | Auckland, New Zealand | Chronic pain | Ethnic minority and European ethnicity patients | 58 | 21.2 | |
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