{"doi":"10.3390/nu17223553","title":"Vitamin D Status as a Late Pregnancy Biomarker of Perceived Stress","abstract":"Background/Objectives: Stress during pregnancy critically impacts maternal and fetal health. While prior research has linked sociodemographic and biological factors to stress levels, the role of specific biomarkers, such as vitamin D (VD), remains unexplored. This study examined the relationships among sociodemographic factors, VD status (as measured by serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] concentration), and perceived stress in pregnant women. We hypothesized that 25(OH)D concentration would be associated with perceived stress levels during pregnancy. Methods: A post hoc analysis of the Kellogg Pregnancy VD study was conducted on a cohort of 232 pregnant women with Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10) scores at months 2, 5, and 7 with corresponding 25(OH)D concentrations. PSS-10 scores were classified into two groups: patients with scores of 0–13 were considered to have low stress, while those with scores of 14–40 were considered to have moderate-to-high stress. Logistic regression models identified factors associated with moderate-to-high stress. Results: At month 2, univariate analyses showed that being married (p = 0.002), having a college education (p = 0.0013), and lower BMI (p = 0.018) were associated with lower perceived stress, whereas Black race was associated with higher perceived stress (p = 0.027). By month 7, higher serum 25(OH)D concentration was the only significant predictor of perceived stress in univariate analysis (p = 0.002). In multivariate models at month 7, 25(OH)D approached significance (p = 0.053). Conclusions: Early in pregnancy, race, marital status, college education, and BMI were significantly associated with PSS-10 score. By month 7, 25(OH)D concentration over time emerged as a factor that was significantly associated in univariate analysis and showed a trend toward significance in multivariate models. VD status, as measured by 25(OH)D concentration, may act as a biomarker of stress during pregnancy. Results warrant further study in prospective intervention trials.","journal":"Nutrients","year":2025,"id":581226,"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":0,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9647,"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":1492889,"name":"Anjali G. Borsum","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":342056,"name":"Mathew J. Gregoski","orcid":"0000-0002-6939-5771","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1118913,"name":"Myla Ebeling","orcid":"0000-0001-5690-5245","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":339420,"name":"Judith Shary","orcid":"0000-0003-2064-1043","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":536946,"name":"Martin Hewison","orcid":"0000-0001-5806-9690","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":252198,"name":"Bruce W. Hollis","orcid":"0000-0002-2588-5568","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":310779,"name":"Carol L. Wagner","orcid":"0000-0003-2764-6533","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":873556,"name":"Maya F. Andrade","orcid":"0000-0002-7936-0425","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":69,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:58:47.357782Z","pmid":"41305604","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":[]}