Importance of Vitamin D in COVID-19 Patients

Objectives: The severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus, was identified as the cause of a severe respiratory illness in Wuhan, China three years ago. The COVID-19 infection, which was declared a pandemic in March 2020, caused more than 600 million people to get sick and close to 7 million people to die. Which people have the disease more severely and who have higher mortality are still the subject of research. We investigated whether vitamin D, whose role in immunity has been known for a long time, also affects the prognosis of COVID-19 infection. COVID-19 is currently the leading cause of death worldwide. Vitamin D is an important micronutrient and has been reported to protect against respiratory diseases by improving immunity. In this study, we aimed to reveal whether the 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25 (OH) D) concentration is associated with the risk and severity of COVID-19 by evaluating vitamin D levels in outpatients or hospitalized patients with the diagnosis of COVID-19. Methods: In the study, vitamin D levels in 124 COVID-19 cases and clinical course and laboratory findings were analyzed retrospectively between March 11-May 31 2020. Statistical analysis was done using IBM SPSS 23. Kolmogorov Smirnov, Man Whitney U, Kruskal Wallis Test, Chi-square, and fisher extract and risk analysis tests were used. Categorical variables were expressed as %. P value < 0.05 was considered significant. Results: Vitamin 25 (OH) D level in 32 patients (median 10.2) who were given antiviral treatment and needed oxygen. It was found to be significantly lower than the other 92 patients (median 16.25). When patients who needed oxygen treatment during COVID-19 treatment were examined in terms of vitamin D levels; It was observed that patients with 25 (OH) vitamin D level < 10 needed more O2 (OR: 2,833 CI 95% 1,230-6,528, p = 0.013). In patients with 25 (OH) vitamin D < 10, more patients had pulmonary involvement with thorax CT (OR: 2.225 CI 95% 0.999-4.952 p = 0.048) and these patients had more back pain symptoms (OR: 4,765 CI 95% 1,126-20,163 p = 0.022). Patients with 25 (OH) vitamin D