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Association between low serum vitamin D and increased mortality and severity due to COVID-19: reverse causality?
, 3, 4, 56
Affiliations- Facultad de Medicina Humana, Universidad de San Martín de Porres, Lima, Peru
- Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Lima, Peru
- Academic Unit of Anaesthesia, College of Medical, Veterinary and Life of Sciences- University of Glasgow, Glasgow Royal Infirmary, Glasgow, United Kingdom
- Universidad de Valladolid, Valladolid, Spain
- Discipline of Medical Gerontology, Mercer’s Institute for Successful Ageing, St James’s Hospital, Dublin, Ireland
- Global Brain Health Institute, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
open access
Abstract
We are very close to completing two years since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Even though vaccines have been developed and applied to more than 4 billion people in the world, SARS-CoV-2 continues to be a challenge for humanity. Therefore, it is important to study modifiable risk factors that may increase the severity of COVID-19, and one of the most discussed has been vitamin D. Currently, there is some evidence of association between low serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D3] and increased mortality and severity due to SARS-CoV-2 infection. Before the pandemic, experimental evidence in animal and human studies had reported that an acute inflammatory process can cause a secondary decrease in 25(OH)D3. COVID-19 can be associated with a severe inflammatory process with an elevation of inflammatory markers; in this light, the reported association between low 25(OH)D3 and COVID-19 severity and/or mortality may be an epiphenomenon of the inflammatory process induced by SARS-CoV-2 and be an example of reverse causality.
Abstract
We are very close to completing two years since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Even though vaccines have been developed and applied to more than 4 billion people in the world, SARS-CoV-2 continues to be a challenge for humanity. Therefore, it is important to study modifiable risk factors that may increase the severity of COVID-19, and one of the most discussed has been vitamin D. Currently, there is some evidence of association between low serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D3] and increased mortality and severity due to SARS-CoV-2 infection. Before the pandemic, experimental evidence in animal and human studies had reported that an acute inflammatory process can cause a secondary decrease in 25(OH)D3. COVID-19 can be associated with a severe inflammatory process with an elevation of inflammatory markers; in this light, the reported association between low 25(OH)D3 and COVID-19 severity and/or mortality may be an epiphenomenon of the inflammatory process induced by SARS-CoV-2 and be an example of reverse causality.
Keywords
SARS-CoV-2; COVID-19; Vitamin D; 25-hydroxyvitamin D; severity; mortality
About this articleTitle
Association between low serum vitamin D and increased mortality and severity due to COVID-19: reverse causality?
Journal
Disaster and Emergency Medicine Journal
Issue
Article type
Review paper
Pages
124-131
Published online
2022-06-22
Page views
4529
Article views/downloads
354
DOI
Bibliographic record
Disaster Emerg Med J 2022;7(2):124-131.
Keywords
SARS-CoV-2
COVID-19
Vitamin D
25-hydroxyvitamin D
severity
mortality
Authors
Teodoro J. Oscanoa
Rawia A. Ghashut
Alfonso Carvajal
Roman Romero-Ortuno
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