Vitamin D levels in children with COVID-19: a report from Turkey
Aysegul Alpcan, Serkan Tursun, Yaşar Kandur
Epidemiology and Infection, doi:10.1017/s0950268821001825
Several studies have demonstrated that higher levels of vitamin D are associated with better prognosis and outcomes in infectious diseases. We aimed to compare the vitamin D levels of paediatric patients with mild/moderate coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) disease and a healthy control group. We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of patients who were hospitalised at our university hospital with the diagnosis of COVID-19 during the period between 25 May 2020 and 24 December 2020. The mean age of the COVID-19 patients was 10.7 ± 5.5 years (range 1-18 years); 43 (57.3%) COVID-19 patients were male. The mean serum vitamin D level was significantly lower in the COVID-19 group than the control group (21.5 ± 10.0 vs. 28.0 ± 11.0 IU, P < 0.001). The proportion of patients with vitamin D deficiency was significantly higher in the COVID-19 group than the control group (44% vs. 17.5%, P < 0.001). Patients with low vitamin D levels were older than the patients with normal vitamin D levels (11.6 ± 4.9 vs. 6.2 ± 1.8 years, P = 0.016). There was a significant male preponderance in the normal vitamin D group compared with the low vitamin D group (91.7% vs. 50.8%, P = 0.03). C-reactive protein level was higher in the low vitamin D group, although the difference did not reach statistical significance (9.6 ± 2.2 vs. 4.5 ± 1.6 mg/l, P = 0.074). Our study provides an insight into the relationship between vitamin D deficiency and COVID-19 for future studies. Empiric intervention with vitamin D can be justified by low serum vitamin D levels.
Author contributions. AA and YK contributed to the analysis and drafted the manuscript. ST helped to evaluate the subjects. YK designed and critically revised the manuscript. All authors have read and approved the final form of the manuscript. Financial support. None.
Conflict of interest. None. Ethical standards. The ethics committee approval of the study was obtained from the Kirikkale University Clinical Research Ethics Committee (Date: 25.02.2021/Decision no:2021.02.03). Written informed consent was not obtained from the legal guardians of the patients in this study because this is a retrospective study and the patients had been discharged when the study was carried out. All methods were carried out in accordance with relevant guidelines and regulations. Consent for publication. Not applicable.
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