BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Lower extremity pain is an important cause of impaired physical activity and the incidence of disability in the elderly. Since vitamin D plays a role in bone metabolism, the present study aims to investigate the relationship between vitamin D deficiency and shinbone pain and sensitivity in the elderly.

METHODS: This case-control study was conducted among patients who referred to the hospital because of nonspecific pain localized to the anterior surface of shin for 6 weeks and above and aged 50 years and above. The problem was confirmed during clinical examination with the examiner's finger pressure on the Tibia. The same-age control subjects were chosen from among patients without shin pain. The level of 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25OHD) was measured using ELISA method and 25OHD<20 ng/m was considered deficiency.

FINDINGS: In this research, 80 patients with mean age of 61±8.2 years and 59 control subjects with mean age of 62.3±9.1 years were studied. The level of 25OHD in patients was lower than control subjects (21±16 versus 37.4±21.6 ng/ml) (p=0.001), while BMI in patients was significantly higher than control subjects (p=0.001). Moreover, a significant relationship was observed between vitamin D deficiency and shin pain (OR=15.3 [8.5-40]), which was more severe among men.

CONCLUSION: According to the results of the resent study, the elderly patients with local pain and unexplained shin pain need to be examined in terms of vitamin D status and need to be treated in case of deficiency