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
. 2022 Oct 25;115(10):665-672.
doi: 10.1093/qjmed/hcac040.

Does vitamin D supplementation reduce COVID-19 severity?: a systematic review

K Shah  1 , V P Varna  1 , U Sharma  1 , D Mavalankar  1
Affiliations

Does vitamin D supplementation reduce COVID-19 severity?: a systematic review

K Shah et al. QJM. .

Abstract

Background: The evidence regarding the efficacy of vitamin D supplementation in reducing severity of COVID-19 is still insufficient. This is partially due to the lack of primary robust trial-based data and heterogeneous study designs.

Aim: This evidence summary, aims to study the effect of vitamin D supplementation on morbidity and mortality in hospitalized COVID-19 patients.Design: Evidence summary of systematic reviews.

Methods: For this study, systematic reviews and meta-analysis published from December 2019 to January 2022 presenting the impact of vitamin D supplementation on COVID-19 severity were screened and selected from PubMed and Google scholar. After initial screening, 10 eligible reviews were identified and quality of included reviews were assessed using AMSTAR and GRADE tools and overlapping among the primary studies used were also assessed.

Results: The number of primary studies included in the systematic reviews ranged from 3 to 13. Meta-analysis of seven systematic reviews showed strong evidence that vitamin D supplementation reduces the risk of mortality (Odds ratio: 0.48, 95% CI: 0.346-0.664; P < 0.001) in COVID patients. It was also observed that supplementation reduces the need for intensive care (Odds ratio: 0.35; 95%CI: 0.28-0.44; P < 0.001) and mechanical ventilation (Odds ratio: 0.54; 95% CI: 0.411-0.708; P < 0.001) requirement. The findings were robust and reliable as level of heterogeneity was considerably low. However the included studies were of varied quality. Qualitative analysis showed that supplements (oral and IV) are well tolerated, safe and effective in COVID patients.

Conclusion: The findings of this study show that vitamin D supplementation is effective in reducing the COVID-19 severity. Hence, vitamin D should be recommended as an adjuvant therapy for COVID-19.However, more robust and larger trials are required to substantiate it further.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
PRISMA chart.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Forest plot showing the effect of vitamin D supplementation on mortality.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Forest plot showing the effect of vitamin D supplementation on ICU admissions.
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
Forest plot showing the effect of vitamin D supplementation on ventilation requirement.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment in

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Harvey WT, Carabelli AM, Jackson B, Gupta RK, Thomson EC, Harrison EM, et al.SARS-CoV-2 Variants, Spike Mutations and Immune Escape. www.nature.com/nrmicro. 22 January, 2022. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Martineau AR, Jolliffe DA, Hooper RL, Greenberg L, Aloia JF, Bergman P, et al. Vitamin D supplementation to prevent acute respiratory tract infections: systematic review and meta-analysis of individual participant data Supplementary Material Davaasambuu Ganmaa 7 Adit A Ginde 8 Ilkka Laaksi 13 Semira Manaseki-Holland 14 Iwona Stelmac. 2017. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Malaguarnera L. Vitamin D3 as potential treatment adjuncts for COVID-19. Nutrients 2020; 12:3512. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Entrenas Castillo M, Entrenas Costa LM, Vaquero Barrios JM, Alcalá Díaz JF, López Miranda J, Bouillon R, et al.Effect of calcifediol treatment and best available therapy versus best available therapy on intensive care unit admission and mortality among patients hospitalized for COVID-19: a pilot randomized clinical study. J Steroid Biochem Mol Biol 2020; 203:105751. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Rastogi A, Bhansali A, Khare N, Suri V, Yaddanapudi N, Sachdeva N, et al.Short term, high-dose vitamin D supplementation for COVID-19 disease: a randomised, placebo-controlled, study (SHADE study). Postgrad Med J 2020; 98:postgradmedj-2020-139065. - PubMed

Publication types