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Preventive Vitamin D Supplementation and Risk for COVID-19 Infection: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Open accessAbstract
Over the past few decades, vitamin D has been found to play a crucial role in bone homeostasis, muscle function, oncogenesis, immune response and metabolism. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, numerous researchers have tried to determine the role vitamin D might play in the immune response to the virus. The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis is to demonstrate that preventive vitamin D supplementation can play a protective role in the incidence of COVID-19, mortality and admission to intensive care units (ICUs). A comprehensive search on the PubMed/MEDLINE, Scopus, Cochrane and Google Scholar databases was performed on 15 May 2023, and two of the authors independently screened the literature. As effect measures, we calculated the Odds Ratios with their corresponding 95% confidence intervals (ICs). The assessment of potential bias and the evaluation of study quality will be conducted independently by two researchers. Sixteen publications were selected for inclusion in the meta-analysis. Our findings indicate that vitamin D supplementation has a protective effect against the incidence of COVID-19 in RCT studies (OR 0.403, 95% IC 0.218, 0.747), in the incidence of COVID-19 in analytical studies (OR = 0.592, 95% IC 0.476–0.736) and in ICU admission (OR 0.317, 95% IC 0.147–0.680). Subsequent analyses were conducted by type of subject treated (patient/healthcare workers) and type of supplementation (vitamin D vs. placebo/no treatment or high dose vs. low dose). Our meta-analysis suggests a definitive and significant association between the protective role of vitamin D and COVID-19 incidence and ICU admission.
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![Figure 1 PRISMA 2020 flow diagram of study selection, inclusion and synthesis [18].](/paper-figures/9e59a4834cc04fe9bcd7523798bcde58/preventive-vitamin-d-supplementation-and-risk-for-covid-19-infection-a-figure-1.jpg)
![Figure 2 Forest plot of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) conducted separately on healthcare workers (HCWs) and patients, as well as collectively [23,25,28,29,35,36].](/paper-figures/e0bc9da016a5408383db7e1fbe71bae4/preventive-vitamin-d-supplementation-and-risk-for-covid-19-infection-a-figure-2.jpg)
![Figure 3 Forest plot of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing vitamin D supplementation to no supplementation [23,28,29,36].](/paper-figures/a8b265264bce4185810736a4febaa289/preventive-vitamin-d-supplementation-and-risk-for-covid-19-infection-a-figure-3.jpg)
![Figure 4 Forest plot demonstrating ability of vitamin D supplementation to reduce ICU admission [22,27,31].](/paper-figures/eb525e715d9e415c9412afbbb3f2a759/preventive-vitamin-d-supplementation-and-risk-for-covid-19-infection-a-figure-4.jpg)
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In the citing paper
“Additionally, there are still limited meta-analyses on the role of nutrient supplementation in preventing COVID-19 and influenza.”
From Comparative effectiveness of oral nutritional supplements in preventing respiratory tract infections among adults: a systematic review and network meta-analysis (2025) · cites this paper as [17]
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Cites
The PRISMA 2020 statement: An updated guideline for reporting systematic reviews
Page, M. J., McKenzie, J. E., Bossuyt, P. M., Boutron, I., Hoffmann, T. C., Mulrow, C. D., Shamseer, L., Tetzlaff, J. M., Akl, E. A., Brennan, S. E., et al. (2021) · BMJ · doi:10.1136/bmj.n71 · Cited by 108,283
Holick, M. F. (2007) · New England Journal of Medicine · doi:10.1056/nejmra070553 · Cited by 13,720
Grant, W., Lahore, H., McDonnell, S., Baggerly, C., French, C., Aliano, J., & Bhattoa, H. (2020) · Nutrients · doi:10.3390/nu12040988 · Cited by 2,066
Estimates of optimal vitamin D status
Dawson-Hughes, B., Heaney, R. P., Holick, M. F., Lips, P., Meunier, P. J., & Vieth, R. (2005) · Osteoporosis International · doi:10.1007/s00198-005-1867-7 · Cited by 1,854
Ma, L.-L., Wang, Y.-Y., Yang, Z.-H., Huang, D., Weng, H., & Zeng, X.-T. (2020) · Military Medical Research · doi:10.1186/s40779-020-00238-8 · Cited by 1,648
Skeletal and Extraskeletal Actions of Vitamin D: Current Evidence and Outstanding Questions
Bouillon, R., Marcocci, C., Carmeliet, G., Bikle, D., White, J. H., Dawson-Hughes, B., Lips, P., Munns, C. F., Lazaretti-Castro, M., Giustina, A., et al. (2019) · Endocrine Reviews · doi:10.1210/er.2018-00126 · Cited by 1,143
Autier, P. (2007) · Archives of Internal Medicine · doi:10.1001/archinte.167.16.1730 · Cited by 1,104
Lamers, M. M., & Haagmans, B. L. (2022) · Nature Reviews Microbiology · doi:10.1038/s41579-022-00713-0 · Cited by 983
Low serum vitamin D levels and tuberculosis: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Nnoaham, K. E., & Clarke, A. (2008) · International Journal of Epidemiology · doi:10.1093/ije/dym247 · Cited by 681
Pathology and Pathogenesis of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome
Gu, J., & Korteweg, C. (2007) · The American Journal of Pathology · doi:10.2353/ajpath.2007.061088 · Cited by 592
Research works printed but not linked: 3
- Institute of Medicine (IOM) (2011). Dietary Reference Intakes for Calcium and Vitamin D, The National Academies Press.
- Ross, A.C., Caballero, B., Cousins, R.J., Tucker, K.L., and Ziegler, T.R. (2014). Modern Nutrition in Health and Disease, Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. [11th ed.].
- Sartini, M., Del Puente, F., Carbone, A., and Oliva, M. (2023). Preventive Vitamin D Supplementation and Risk for COVID-19 Infection: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. PROSPERO, CRD42023469817.
Cited by
Vitamin D and its analogs in immune system regulation
Artusa, P., & White, J. H. (2024) · Pharmacological Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.pharmr.2024.100032 · Cited by 95
Sobczak, M., & Pawliczak, R. (2024) · Nutrients · doi:10.3390/nu16101402 · Cited by 25
Dalamaga, Μ., Emfietzoglou, R., Petropoulou, D., Kypraiou, M., Kounatidis, D. C., Vallianou, N. G., Karras, S. Ν., Magkos, F., & Karampela, Ι. (2026) · Current Nutrition Reports · doi:10.1007/s13668-026-00748-2 · Cited by 18
Vitamin D and COVID-19: Clinical Evidence and Immunological Insights
Căliman-Sturdza, O. A., Gheorghita, R. E., & Șoldănescu, I. (2025) · Life · doi:10.3390/life15050733 · Cited by 18
Zhang, X., Wu, J., Dong, H., Shang, N., Li, Y., Zhang, Y., Guo, S., & Mei, X. (2024) · Frontiers in Nutrition · doi:10.3389/fnut.2024.1441847 · Cited by 14
Metadata
- Authors
- Sartini, M., Del Puente, F., Oliva, M., Carbone, A., Bobbio, N., Schinca, E., Giribone, L., & Cristina, M. L.
- Affiliations
- Ente Ospedaliero Ospedali Galliera (IT)
- Department of Infectious Diseases, Galliera Hospital, 16128 Genoa, Italy
- University of Genoa (IT)
- Corresponding author
- Sartini, Marina
- ORCID
- Venue
- Nutrients
- Publisher
- MDPI AG
- Published
- 2024-02-28
- Volume
- 16
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 679
- ISSN
- 2072-6643 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC10935157
- OpenAlex
- W4392241458
- Cited by
- 38
- References
- 51
- Citations by year
- 2026: 10 · 2025: 17 · 2024: 11
- FWCI
- 2.84
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Nutrients (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- CINECA IRIS Institutial Research Information System (University of Genoa) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism › Vitamin D Research Studies
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Infectious Diseases › COVID-19 Clinical Research Studies
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Infectious Diseases › SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 Research
- Keywords
- vitamin D supplementation, COVID-19 pandemic, preventive supplementation, COVID-19 incidence, intensive care unit admission, COVID-19 mortality, immune response, healthcare workers, vitamin D dose
- MeSH terms
- COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, Humans, Intensive Care Units, Vitamin D, Vitamin D Deficiency, Vitamins, Incidence, Dietary Supplements, Pandemics
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Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).
Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.