Vitamin D status and mortality: A systematic review of observational studies
File(s)
Published version
OA Location
Author(s)
Heath, Alicia
Kim, Iris
Hodge, Allison
English, Dallas
Muller, David
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Epidemiological evidence suggests that vitamin D deficiency is associated with increased mortality, but it is unclear whether this is explained by reverse causation, and if there are specific causes of death for which vitamin D might be important. We conducted a systematic review of observational studies investigating associations between circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) concentration and all-cause or cause-specific mortality in generally healthy populations. Relevant studies were identified using PubMed and EMBASE searches. After screening 722 unique records and removing those that were ineligible, 84 articles were included in this review. The vast majority of studies reported inverse associations between 25(OH)D concentration and all-cause mortality. This association appeared to be non-linear, with progressively lower mortality with increasing 25(OH)D up to a point, beyond which there was no further decrease. There is moderate evidence that vitamin D status is inversely associated with cancer mortality and death due to respiratory diseases, while for cardiovascular mortality, there is weak evidence of an association in observational studies, which is not supported by the data from intervention or Mendelian randomization studies. The relationship between vitamin D status and other causes of death remains uncertain due to limited data. Larger long-term studies are required to clarify these associations.
Date Issued
2019-01-29
Date Acceptance
2019-01-23
Citation
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2019, 16 (3)
ISSN
1660-4601
Publisher
MDPI AG
Journal / Book Title
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Volume
16
Issue
3
Copyright Statement
© 2019 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (CC BY 4.0 - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Sponsor
Cancer Research UK
Cancer Research UK
Grant Number
C57955/A24390
C57955/A24390
Subjects
25-hydroxyvitamin D
all-cause mortality
cancer mortality
cardiovascular mortality
cause-specific mortality
mortality
respiratory disease mortality
systematic review
vitamin D
vitamin D status
MD Multidisciplinary
Toxicology
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
383
Date Publish Online
2019-01-29