Impact of vitamin D deficiency on COVID-19
Analysis of vitamin D deficiency and COVID-19 cases and deaths in 47 countries, showing vitamin D deficiency significantly associated with mortality.
Sooriyaarachchi et al., 29 May 2021, peer-reviewed, 4 authors.
Abstract: Clinical Nutrition ESPEN 44 (2021) 372e378
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Clinical Nutrition ESPEN
journal homepage: http://www.clinicalnutritionespen.com
Original article
Impact of vitamin D deficiency on COVID-19
Piumika Sooriyaarachchi a, b, Dhanushya T. Jeyakumar b, c, Neil King a,
Ranil Jayawardena a, d, *
a
Queensland University of Technology, School of Exercise & Nutrition Sciences, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Health and Wellness Unit, Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo, Colombo, Sri Lanka
c
Department of Biosystems Technology, Faculty of Technology, Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka
d
Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo, Colombo, Sri Lanka
b
a r t i c l e i n f o
s u m m a r y
Article history:
Received 11 May 2021
Accepted 14 May 2021
Background & aims: COVID-19 has emerged as a global pandemic affecting millions of people. Vitamin D
deficiency is one of the risk factors for increased susceptibility to COVID-19. This study aimed to examine
the correlation between the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency and COVID-19 infection and mortality
rates among the adult population in European and Asian continents.
Methods: Prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in each country was retrieved through literature searching
on PubMed® database for the last ten years. As of December, 31st 2020, COVID-19 infections and mortalities per million population were extracted from the ‘real time’ statistics of the Worldometer website.
The association between both vitamin D deficiency and COVID-19 infections and mortalities were
explored.
Results: Forty seven countries were included in the analysis. The prevalence of vitamin D deficiency
ranged from 6.9 to 81.8% in European countries and 2.0e87.5% in Asian countries. Significantly positive
correlations were observed for both COVID-19 infection (r ¼ 0.76; p < 0.001) and mortality rates
(r ¼ 0.75; p < 0.001) in the Asian continent. The correlation values for the infections and mortality rates
in the European continent were (r ¼ 0.37; p ¼ 0.08) and (r ¼ 0.43; p ¼ 0.04) respectively. When both the
continents were combined, the correlation results for both infection (r ¼ 0.42; p ¼ 0.003) and mortality
(r ¼ 0.35; p ¼ 0.016) rates with vitamin D deficiency values remained significant.
Conclusion: Prevalence of vitamin D deficiency was significantly associated with the mortality rate of
COVID-19 in Europe and Asia. The association between the infection rate and prevalence of vitamin D
deficiency was significant for Asia only. Both the associations were significant when the two continents
were combined in the analysis. Therefore we suggest that vitamin D supplementation could play a key
role in the prevention and/or treatment of the COVID-19 patients.
© 2021 European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights
reserved.
Keywords:
Vitamin D
Deficiency
COVID-19
Infections
Mortalities
Europe
Asia
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