Vitamin D Status Is Associated With In-Hospital Mortality and Mechanical Ventilation: A Cohort of COVID-19 Hospitalized Patients

Abstract

Objective: To explore the possible associations of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] concentration with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in-hospital mortality and need for invasive mechanical ventilation.

Patients and methods: A retrospective, observational, cohort study was conducted at 2 tertiary academic medical centers in Boston and New York. Eligible participants were hospitalized adult patients with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 between February 1, 2020, and May 15, 2020. Demographic and clinical characteristics, comorbidities, medications, and disease-related outcomes were extracted from electronic medical records.

Results: The final analysis included 144 patients with confirmed COVID-19 (median age, 66 years; 64 [44.4%] male). Overall mortality was 18%, whereas patients with 25(OH)D levels of 30 ng/mL (to convert to nmol/L, multiply by 2.496) and higher had lower rates of mortality compared with those with 25(OH)D levels below 30 ng/mL (9.2% vs 25.3%; P=.02). In the adjusted multivariable analyses, 25(OH)D as a continuous variable was independently significantly associated with lower in-hospital mortality (odds ratio, 0.94; 95% CI, 0.90 to 0.98; P=.007) and need for invasive mechanical ventilation (odds ratio, 0.96; 95% CI, 0.93 to 0.99; P=.01). Similar data were obtained when 25(OH)D was studied as a continuous variable after logarithm transformation and as a dichotomous (<30 ng/mL vs ≥30 ng/mL) or ordinal variable (quintiles) in the multivariable analyses.

Conclusion: Among patients admitted with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19, 25(OH)D levels were inversely associated with in-hospital mortality and the need for invasive mechanical ventilation. Further observational studies are needed to confirm these findings, and randomized clinical trials must be conducted to assess the role of vitamin D administration in improving the morbidity and mortality of COVID-19.