{"doi":"10.1016/j.nutos.2025.05.007","title":"Exploring the association between vitamin D status and Corona Virus-19 infection in a cohort of adults aged 50 years and older","abstract":"S U M M A R Y Objective Evaluate the association between vitamin D (vitD) status and Corona Virus-19 (COVID-19) infection in adults aged 50 years and older. Design Adults ≥50 undergoing COVID-19 testing from July 2020 to December 2021, without prior vaccination, consented to blood analysis. SARS-CoV-2 PCR confirmed current COVID-19 infection. VitD status was assessed via 25(OH)D concentration (LCMS/MS, ZRT Labs, Portland, OR). Sociodemographic data were collected at enrollment. Statistical analyses (SAS 9.4) examined associations between sociodemographics, COVID-19, and vitD status. Multivariate logistic regression analyzed factors linked to COVID-19 or vitD status. Results Of 131 participants, 46.6% were ≥65 years old, 71.0% married, 19.9% Black American, 36.6% male, 38.9% Medicaid/Medicare/self-pay, and 42.8% BMI≥30. VitD status and Black American ( P =0.0001) significantly associated with COVID-19 infection ( P =0.0001). Black American ( P =0.0003), males ( P =0.003), and BMI ( P =0.007) were inversely associated with 25(OH)D concentration. In a multiple logistic regression model predicting COVID-19 infection, only vitamin D status remained significant after controlling for certain sociodemographic and clinical factors ( P <0.0001, OR 0.92, 95% CI 0.89–0.95). Of the 44 COVID-positive participants, 35 (79.6%) were hospitalized and 19 (43.2%) were admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Hospitalization due to COVID-19 was associated with age ≥65 years old ( P =0.02; OR 12.0, 95% CI 1.34–106.79), male ( P =0.02, OR 10.7, 95% CI 1.20–94.73), and 25(OH)D <40 ng/mL ( P =0.0006, OR 42.5, 95% CI 3.90–461.01). In multivariate analysis, the association between vitamin D status and the risk of COVID-related hospitalization remained significant and inversely associated ( P =0.03, OR 0.88, 95% CI 0.78–0.99). In unadjusted analysis, COVID pneumonia was associated with male sex ( P =0.049; OR 4.6, 95% CI 1.06–20.16) and 25(OH)D <40 ng/mL ( P =0.006, OR 18.8, 95% CI 1.9–184.10). Participants with COVID infection and 25(OH)D <20 ng/mL were 2.1 times more likely to be admitted to ICU/death ( P =0.03). In unadjusted analysis, ICU admission and/or death were linked to age ≥65 years ( P =0.0002, OR 16.9, 95% CI 3.63–78.56), Medicaid/Medicare/self-pay insurance status ( P =0.004, OR 0.1, 0.04–0.56), and 25(OH)D <20 ( P =0.03, OR 3.9, 1.09–13.66) and <40 ng/mL ( P =0.03); however, only age ≥65 remained significant in multivariate analysis ( P =0.04, OR 6.7, CI 1.05–43.0). Conclusions Lower 25(OH)D concentration was a significant predictor and/or contributor to COVID-19 infection, suggesting the importance of maintaining adequate vitamin D status in reducing infection risk and mitigating severe outcomes.","journal":"Clinical Nutrition Open Science","year":2025,"id":544420,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":1,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9082,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2025-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":782379,"name":"John E. Baatz","orcid":"0000-0001-5870-1000","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1118913,"name":"Myla Ebeling","orcid":"0000-0001-5690-5245","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":802572,"name":"Danforth A. Newton","orcid":"0000-0002-6089-3213","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":339420,"name":"Judith Shary","orcid":"0000-0003-2064-1043","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":342056,"name":"Mathew J. Gregoski","orcid":"0000-0002-6939-5771","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1434979,"name":"Mark T. Wagner","orcid":null,"position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":514976,"name":"David T. Zava","orcid":"0000-0001-7558-8732","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1434607,"name":"Carole A. Baggerly","orcid":"0000-0001-6172-2005","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1434980,"name":"Sonya Ketchens","orcid":null,"position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":304030,"name":"Jeffrey E. Korte","orcid":"0000-0001-7369-9228","position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":252198,"name":"Bruce W. Hollis","orcid":"0000-0002-2588-5568","position":11,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":310779,"name":"Carol L. Wagner","orcid":"0000-0003-2764-6533","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":40,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:53:12.864581Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}