srjmsSRJMSSRJMS2788-948310.47310/srjms.2025.v05i01.009The Silent Deficiency: Exploring Awareness of Vitamin D and Bone Health in the Solan PopulationBackground: Vitamin D, essential for bone health, calcium absorption, and musculoskeletal function, is often deficient even in sun-rich regions like India due to lifestyle changes, inadequate sun exposure, and nutritional deficiencies. Vitamin D deficiency remains largely asymptomatic until serious consequences such as osteoporosis and fractures manifest. The Solan district of Himachal Pradesh, with its mix of rural and urban populations, presents a unique setting to explore awareness about Vitamin D, osteoporosis risk, and related lifestyle behaviors. Materials and Methods: A descriptive, cross-sectional survey was conducted from January to March 2025 among 400 adults aged 18 years and above in Solan district. Participants were recruited using purposive and snowball sampling techniques. Data were collected via a pre-validated bilingual (Hindi and English) online questionnaire assessing socio-demographic details, knowledge of Vitamin D and bone health, behavioral patterns regarding sun exposure, dietary habits, and supplementation practices. Knowledge levels were categorized into four groups based on scoring criteria. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS version 26.0 with chi-square tests applied to examine associations, considering p < 0.05 as significant. Results: The majority of participants were aged 26–35 years (39.0%), with females slightly outnumbering males (53.0%). While 79.8% correctly recognized Vitamin D’s role in bone health and 81.8% identified sunlight as a major source, gaps remained regarding the impact of sunscreen use (62.8%) and routine Vitamin D testing (61.5%). Knowledge classification showed that 30.3% had "Very Good" knowledge, 43.3% had "Good" knowledge, while 19.5% and 7.0% fell into "Fair" and "Poor" knowledge categories, respectively. Rural residents (65.8%) demonstrated comparable awareness to urban participants but highlighted the need for targeted health education. Conclusion: Despite moderate to good baseline knowledge among adults in Solan district, significant gaps, misconceptions, and behavioral inconsistencies persist regarding Vitamin D health practices. Targeted, culturally appropriate health promotion strategies focusing on safe sun exposure, dietary improvements, supplementation awareness, and routine screening are urgently needed to prevent the silent progression of Vitamin D deficiency and its associated skeletal complications in the community.