Low Vitamin D levels associated with increased mortality risk: Lancet

The Findings of the study are as follows:

• Observational analyses suggested inverse associations between incident coronary heart disease, stroke, and all-cause mortality outcomes with 25(OH)D concentration at low 25(OH)D concentrations.
• In population-wide genetic analyses, there were no associations of genetically-predicted 25(OH)D with coronary heart disease, stroke, or all-cause mortality. However, for the participants with vitamin D deficiency (25[OH]D concentration <25 nmol/L), genetic analyses provided strong evidence for an inverse association with all-cause mortality and non-significant inverse associations for stroke and coronary heart disease.
• A finer stratification of participants found inverse associations between genetically-predicted 25(OH)D concentrations and all-cause mortality up to around 40 nmol/L.

Thus, the researchers conclude that stratified Mendelian randomisation analyses suggest a causal relationship between 25(OH)D concentrations and mortality for individuals with low vitamin D status. Our findings have implications for the design of vitamin D supplementation trials, and potential disease prevention strategies.

Reference:

Estimating dose-response relationships for vitamin D with coronary heart disease, stroke, and all-cause mortality: observational and Mendelian randomisation analyses by Emerging Risk Factors Collaboration/EPIC-CVD/Vitamin D Studies Collaboration published in The Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S2213-8587(21)00263-1