• DOI:10.5603/CJ.a2021.0122
• Corpus ID: 238746984

Vitamin D supplementation to treat SARS-CoV-2 positive patients. Evidence from meta-analysis

@article{Szarpak2021VitaminDS,
  title={Vitamin D supplementation to treat SARS-CoV-2 positive patients. Evidence from meta-analysis},
  author={Luiza Szarpak and Krzysztof Jerzy Filipiak and Aleksandra Gąsecka and Władysław B Gaweł and Dorota Kozieł and Miłosz Jarosław Jaguszewski and Jarosław Chmielewski and Anatolii Gozhenko and Karol Bielski and Paweł Wroblewski and Ivan Volodymyrovych Savytskyi and Lukasz Szarpak and Zubaid Rafique},
  journal={Cardiology Journal},
  year={2021},
  volume={29},
  pages={188 - 196}
}

• L. Szarpak, K. Filipiak, +10 authors Z. Rafique
• Published 13 October 2021
• Medicine, Biology
• Cardiology Journal

Background Vitamin D is a likely candidate for treatment as its immune modulating characteristics have effects on coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients. It was sought herein, to summarize the studies published to date regarding the vitamin D supplementation to treat severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) positive patients. Methods A systematic review and meta-analysis were performed following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) statement. The primary outcome were 14-day and in-hospital mortality reported as an odds ratio (OR) with the associated 95% confidence interval (CI). Results Eight articles were included in the review with a combined total of 2,322 individual patients, 786 in the vitamin D supplementation group and 1,536 in the control group. The use of vitamin D compared to the group without vitamin D supplementation was associated with a lower 14-day mortality (18.8% vs. 31.3%, respectively; OR = 0.51; 95% CI: 0.12–2.19; p = 0.36), a lower in-hospital mortality (5.6% vs. 16.1%; OR = 0.56; 95% CI: 0.23–1.37; I2 = 74%; p = 0.20), the rarer intensive care unit admission (6.4% vs. 23.4%; OR = 0.19; 95% CI: 0.06–0.54; I2 = 77%; p = 0.002) as well as rarer mechanical ventilation (6.5% vs. 18.9%; OR = 0.36; 95% CI: 0.16–0.80; I2 = 0.48; p = 0.01). Conclusions Vitamin D supplementation in SARS-CoV-2 positive patients has the potential to positively impact patients with both mild and severe symptoms. As several high-quality randomized control studies have demonstrated a benefit in hospital mortality, vitamin D should be considered a supplemental therapy of strong interest. Should vitamin D prove to reduce hospitalization rates and symptoms outside of the hospital setting, the cost and benefit to global pandemic mitigation efforts would be substantial.