{"doi":"10.3389/fphar.2022.863587","title":"Beneficial Effect of Short-Term Supplementation of High Dose of Vitamin D3 in Hospitalized Patients With COVID-19: A Multicenter, Single-Blinded, Prospective Randomized Pilot Clinical Trial","abstract":"There is now sufficient evidence to support that vitamin D deficiency may predispose to SARS-CoV-2 infection and increase COVID-19 severity and mortality. It has been suggested that vitamin D 3 supplementation may be used prophylactically as an affordable and safe strategy that could be added to the existing COVID-19 standard treatment. This multicenter, single-blinded, prospective randomized pilot clinical trial aimed to evaluate the safety, tolerability, and effectiveness of 10,000 IU/day in comparison with 2000 IU/day of cholecalciferol supplementation for 14 days to reduce the duration and severity of COVID-19 in 85 hospitalized individuals. The median age of the participants was 65 years (Interquartile range (IQR): 53–74), most of them (71%) were men and the mean baseline of 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) in serum was 15 ng/ml (standard deviation (SD):6). After 14 days of supplementation, serum 25(OH)D levels were significantly increased in the group who received 10,000IU/day ( p < 0.0001) ( n = 44) in comparison with the 2,000IU/day group ( n = 41), especially in overweight and obese participants, and the higher dose was well tolerated. A fraction of the individuals in our cohort (10/85) developed acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). The median length of hospital stay in these patients with ARDS was significantly different in the participants assigned to the 10,000IU/day group ( n = 4; 7 days; IQR: 4–13) and the 2,000IU/day group ( n = 6; 27 days; IQR: 12–45) ( p = 0.04). Moreover, the inspired oxygen fraction was reduced 7.6-fold in the high dose group ( p = 0.049). In terms of blood parameters, we did not identify overall significant improvements, although the platelet count showed a modest but significant difference in those patients who were supplemented with the higher dose ( p = 0.0492). In conclusion, the administration of 10,000IU/day of vitamin D 3 for 14 days in association with the standard clinical care during hospitalization for COVID-19 was safe, tolerable, and beneficial, thereby helping to improve the prognosis during the recovery process.","journal":"Frontiers in Pharmacology","year":2022,"id":248983,"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":29,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9504,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2022-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":889043,"name":"Daniel L. Wolf","orcid":"0000-0003-2480-9907","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":889748,"name":"Guiomar Casado","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":889749,"name":"María Novella-Mena","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":629881,"name":"Pablo Ryan","orcid":"0000-0002-4212-7419","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":889044,"name":"María Luisa Taboada-Martínez","orcid":"0000-0002-8600-7654","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":342147,"name":"Sara Rodríguez-Mora","orcid":"0000-0003-2467-116X","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":342144,"name":"Lorena Vigón","orcid":"0000-0002-6405-4054","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":342158,"name":"Mayte Coiras","orcid":"0000-0001-6464-5770","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":670900,"name":"Montserrat Torres","orcid":"0000-0001-8776-8925","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":670905,"name":"Miguel Cervero","orcid":"0000-0001-9387-7917","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":63,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T00:24:19.356023Z","pmid":"35860019","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":[]}