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Clin Nutr. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2026 July 23.
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Clin Nutr. ; 64: 106722. doi:10.1016/j.clnu.2026.106722.
Effect of moderate or high versus low dose daily vitamin D on COVID-19 incidence: a double-blind, parallel-group randomized clinical trial
David O. Meltzer, MD, PhD a,* , James N. Moy, MD b , Andrew W. Schram, MD, MBA a , Alexandra Tate, PhD a , Max J. Hyman, BA a , John F. Cursio, PhD c , Tamara Vokes, MD a , Kiang-Teck J. Yeo, PhD d , Micah Prochaska, MD, MSc a , Joshua J. Jacobs, MD e , Julian Solway, MD a a Department of Medicine, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
b Department of Internal Medicine, Rush Medical College, Chicago, IL, USA
c Department of Public Health Sciences, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
d Department of Pathology, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
e Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Rush Medical College, Chicago, IL, USA
Abstract
Background & aims: Vitamin D affects immune function and is associated with lower COVID-19 risk in observational studies. However, randomized clinical trials vary in whether they find vitamin D supplementation affects COVID-19 risk. The objective of this trial was to determine whether moderate or high dose vitamin D (4,000 or 10,000 IU/day) versus low dose vitamin D (400 IU/day) affects COVID-19 risk.
Methods: We conducted a double-blind, parallel-group randomized trial (clinicaltrials.gov, NCT0486890) enrolling participants from December 5, 2020 to May 23, 2023 who chose between
* Corresponding Author (dmeltzer@bsd.uchicago.edu). Author contributions
James N. Moy: Conceptualization, Investigation, Project Administration, Resources, Supervision, Writing - Review & Editing. Andrew W. Schram: Investigation, Project Administration, Supervision, Writing - Review & Editing.
David O. Meltzer: Conceptualization, Data Curation, Formal Analysis, Funding Acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Project Administration, Resources, Software, Supervision, Validation, Visualization, Writing - Original Draft Preparation, Writing - Review & Editing.
Alexandra Tate: Investigation, Project Administration, Supervision, Writing - Review & Editing.
John F. Cursio: Formal Analysis, Methodology, Software, Writing - Review & Editing.
Max J. Hyman: Data Curation, Formal Analysis, Methodology, Software, Validation, Visualization, Writing - Original Draft Preparation, Writing - Review & Editing.
Tamara Vokes: Investigation, Writing - Review & Editing.
Micah Prochaska: Investigation, Project Administration, Writing - Review & Editing.
Kiang-Teck J. Yeo: Resources, Writing - Review & Editing.
Joshua J. Jacobs: Funding Acquisition, Investigation, Writing - Review & Editing.
Julian Solway: Funding Acquisition, Investigation, Writing - Review & Editing.
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Competing interests
The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
study branches..
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