Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2019 Dec;13(6):498-508.
doi: 10.4162/nrp.2019.13.6.498. Epub 2019 Aug 13.

Association of circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels with hypertension and blood pressure values in Korean adults: A Mendelian randomization study on a subset of the Korea National Health and Nutrition Survey 2011-2012 population

So-Young Kwak  1 , Yoonsu Cho  1   1 , Hannah Oh  1 , Min-Jeong Shin  1
Affiliations

Association of circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels with hypertension and blood pressure values in Korean adults: A Mendelian randomization study on a subset of the Korea National Health and Nutrition Survey 2011-2012 population

So-Young Kwak et al. Nutr Res Pract. 2019 Dec.

Abstract

Background/objectives: Lower circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] levels are associated with a higher risk of hypertension (HTN); however, it remains unclear whether the relationship is causal. We aimed to evaluate the causal effects of circulating 25(OH)D levels on the prevalence of HTN in the Korean population using the Mendelian randomization (MR) approach.

Subjects/methods: Epidemiological data, serum 25(OH)D data, and genomic DNA biospecimens were obtained from 2,591 participants, a subset of the study population in the Korea National Health and Nutrition Survey 2011-2012. Five 25(OH)D-related single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs; DHCR7 rs12785878, CYP2R1 rs10741657, CYP2R1 rs12794714, CYP24A1 rs6013897, and GC rs2282679), identified a priori from genome-wide association studies, were used as instrument variables (IVs) for serum 25(OH)D levels. In the MR analysis, we performed IV analyses using the two-stage least squares method.

Results: In the observational analysis, circulating 25(OH)D levels were found to be inversely associated with the HTN prevalence in ordinary least squares models (odds ratio: 0.97, 95% confidence interval: 0.96, 0.99) after adjusting for the potential confounders. There were differences in the circulating 25(OH)D levels across genotypes of individual SNPs. In the MR analysis, using individual SNPs as IVs, 25(OH)D levels were not associated with the HTN prevalence.

Conclusions: We found no association between genetically determined circulating 25(OH)D levels and HTN in Korean adults. Our results are listed owing to the relatively small sample size and possible weak instrument bias; therefore, further studies are needed to confirm these results.

Keywords: Vitamin D; blood pressure; causality; hypertension.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

CONFLICT OF INTEREST: The authors declare no potential conflicts of interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1. Flow chart of the study participant selection
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Ke L, Mason RS, Kariuki M, Mpofu E, Brock KE. Vitamin D status and hypertension: a review. Integr Blood Press Control. 2015;8:13–35. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Kunutsor SK, Apekey TA, Steur M. Vitamin D and risk of future hypertension: meta-analysis of 283,537 participants. Eur J Epidemiol. 2013;28:205–221. - PubMed
    1. Golzarand M, Shab-Bidar S, Koochakpoor G, Speakman JR, Djafarian K. Effect of vitamin D3 supplementation on blood pressure in adults: an updated meta-analysis. Nutr Metab Cardiovasc Dis. 2016;26:663–673. - PubMed
    1. Vimaleswaran KS, Berry DJ, Lu C, Tikkanen E, Pilz S, Hiraki LT, Cooper JD, Dastani Z, Li R, Houston DK, Wood AR, Michaëlsson K, Vandenput L, Zgaga L, Yerges-Armstrong LM, McCarthy MI, Dupuis J, Kaakinen M, Kleber ME, Jameson K, Arden N, Raitakari O, Viikari J, Lohman KK, Ferrucci L, Melhus H, Ingelsson E, Byberg L, Lind L, Lorentzon M, Salomaa V, Campbell H, Dunlop M, Mitchell BD, Herzig KH, Pouta A, Hartikainen AL, Streeten EA, Theodoratou E, Jula A, Wareham NJ, Ohlsson C, Frayling TM, Kritchevsky SB, Spector TD, Richards JB, Lehtimäki T, Ouwehand WH, Kraft P, Cooper C, März W, Power C, Loos RJ, Wang TJ, Järvelin MR, Whittaker JC, Hingorani AD, Hyppönen E Genetic Investigation of Anthropometric Traits-GIANT Consortium. Causal relationship between obesity and vitamin D status: bi-directional Mendelian randomization analysis of multiple cohorts. PLoS Med. 2013;10:e1001383. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Scragg R, Holdaway I, Jackson R, Lim T. Plasma 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 and its relation to physical activity and other heart disease risk factors in the general population. Ann Epidemiol. 1992;2:697–703. - PubMed