New research shows a link between vitamin D deficiency and the risk of becoming infected with the new coronavirus.
Published in JAMA Network Open, the study includes an analysis of data for 489 University of Chicago Medicine patients whose vitamin D levels were measured in the year before being tested for COVID-19. Of the 489 patients studied, 124 had vitamin D deficiency (less than 20ng/ml). Overall, 71 participants (15 percent) tested positive for COVID-19.
Patients who had an untreated vitamin D deficiency were almost twice as likely to test positive for the COVID-19 as compared to patients who had sufficient Vitamin D levels.
"Understanding whether treating Vitamin D deficiency changes COVID-19 risk could be of great importance locally, nationally and globally," said David Meltzer, MD, PhD, chief of hospital medicine at UChicago Medicine and lead author of the study. "Vitamin D is inexpensive, generally very safe to take, and can be widely scaled."
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