Vitamin D Insufficiency and Deficiency and Mortality from Respiratory Diseases in a Cohort of Older Adults: Potential for Limiting the Death Toll during and beyond the COVID-19 Pandemic?

Brenner, Hermann; Holleczek, Bernd; Schöttker, Ben

doi:10.3390/nu12082488

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Vitamin D Insufficiency and Deficiency and Mortality from Respiratory Diseases in a Cohort of Older Adults: Potential for Limiting the Death Toll during and beyond the COVID-19 Pandemic?

Hermann Brenner

^1,2,3,4,*

Bernd Holleczek

^1,5 and

Ben Schöttker

^1,4

Division of Clinical Epidemiology and Aging Research, Germany Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), 69118 Heidelberg, Germany

Division of Preventive Oncology, Germany Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT), 69120 Heidelberg, Germany

German Cancer Consortium (DKTK), Germany Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), 69120 Heidelberg, Germany

⁴

Network Aging Research, University of Heidelberg, 69115 Heidelberg, Germany

⁵

Saarland Cancer Registry, 66119 Saarbrücken, Germany

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Nutrients 2020, 12(8), 2488; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12082488

Received: 22 July 2020 / Revised: 11 August 2020 / Accepted: 14 August 2020 / Published: 18 August 2020

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nutrition within and beyond Corona Virus)

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Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic goes along with increased mortality from acute respiratory disease. It has been suggested that vitamin D₃ supplementation might help to reduce respiratory disease mortality. We assessed the prevalence of vitamin D insufficiency and deficiency, defined by 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) blood levels of 30–50 and <30 nmol/L, respectively, and their association with mortality from respiratory diseases during 15 years of follow-up in a cohort of 9548 adults aged 50–75 years from Saarland, Germany. Vitamin D insufficiency and deficiency were common (44% and 15%, respectively). Compared to those with sufficient vitamin D status, participants with vitamin D insufficiency and deficiency had strongly increased respiratory mortality, with adjusted hazard ratios (95% confidence intervals) of 2.1 (1.3–3.2) and 3.0 (1.8–5.2) overall, 4.3 (1.3–14.4) and 8.5 (2.4–30.1) among women, and 1.9 (1.1–3.2) and 2.3 (1.1–4.4) among men. Overall, 41% (95% confidence interval: 20–58%) of respiratory disease mortality was statistically attributable to vitamin D insufficiency or deficiency. Vitamin D insufficiency and deficiency are common and account for a large proportion of respiratory disease mortality in older adults, supporting the hypothesis that vitamin D₃ supplementation could be helpful to limit the burden of the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly among women. View Full-Text

Keywords: vitamin D; mortality; respiratory disease; COVID-19

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Brenner, H.; Holleczek, B.; Schöttker, B. Vitamin D Insufficiency and Deficiency and Mortality from Respiratory Diseases in a Cohort of Older Adults: Potential for Limiting the Death Toll during and beyond the COVID-19 Pandemic? Nutrients 2020, 12, 2488. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12082488

AMA Style

Brenner H, Holleczek B, Schöttker B. Vitamin D Insufficiency and Deficiency and Mortality from Respiratory Diseases in a Cohort of Older Adults: Potential for Limiting the Death Toll during and beyond the COVID-19 Pandemic? Nutrients. 2020; 12(8):2488. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12082488

Chicago/Turabian Style

Brenner, Hermann, Bernd Holleczek, and Ben Schöttker. 2020. "Vitamin D Insufficiency and Deficiency and Mortality from Respiratory Diseases in a Cohort of Older Adults: Potential for Limiting the Death Toll during and beyond the COVID-19 Pandemic?" Nutrients 12, no. 8: 2488. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12082488

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Vitamin D Insufficiency and Deficiency and Mortality from Respiratory Diseases in a Cohort of Older Adults: Potential for Limiting the Death Toll during and beyond the COVID-19 Pandemic?

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