Vitamin D associated with reduced COVID-19 risks in children - Grassroots
The following was reported by Grassroots Health Nov 30
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Do vitamin D levels in children affect their chance of getting COVID-19 and its severity?
While children do not tend to be as severely affected by the SARS-CoV-2 virus and the resulting effects of COVID-19, they are certainly not immune to it, and there is concern that children who carry the virus but are asymptomatic are a contributor to its spread.
Children are also not ‘immune’ to vitamin D deficiency – in fact, a previous post shared data from the US NHANES data set showing that vitamin D levels decline as children age, with a 4-fold increase in the proportion of children below 20 ng/ml (50 nmol/L) from ages 0-4 years up to ages 13-17 years old.
How Might Vitamin D Levels in Children Affect Their COVID-19 Status?
To answer this question, Kamil Yilmaz and Velat Sen conducted a study in which they enrolled 85 children between the ages of 1 month to 18 years, 40 of whom had been diagnosed with COVID-19 and hospitalized, and 45 who were healthy controls. Children with chronic diseases and other co-morbidities were excluded from the study.
Children diagnosed with COVID-19 were divided into two groups for analysis – Group 1 included children who had a vitamin D level below 20 ng/ml, and Group 2 included those with levels at or above 20 ng/ml.
What did the study find?
The study found a significant difference in vitamin D levels between the children with COVID-19, who had a median level of 13 ng/ml (32 nmol/L), and the control group, with a median level of 35 ng/ml (87 nmol/L).
When disease severity for the children who were diagnosed with COVID-19 was analyzed according to vitamin D level, a trend was found showing increased disease severity for those with lower vitamin D levels. In fact, among those with a vitamin D level below 20 ng/ml (50 nmol/L), 31% of the children had moderate to severe COVID-19 symptoms, compared to only 18% with moderate symptoms (none classified as severe) for those children with vitamin D levels of 20 ng/ml or higher. Additionally, 46% of the children with higher vitamin D levels were asymptomatic, compared to 10% of those with lower vitamin D levels .
The study also found a significant negative correlation between vitamin D level and the chance of getting a fever (defined as a temperature above 100.4 F or 38 C, p=0.023), meaning that as vitamin D levels increased, the chance of fever decreased. Overall, none of the children with a vitamin D level of at least 20 ng/ml had a fever, while 34.5% of those with levels below 20 ng/ml did.
See also VitaminDWiki
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