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1378The effect of vitamin D supplementation on acute respiratory infection -analysis of the D-Health Trial

Authors :
Donald S. A. McLeod
Catherine Baxter
Briony Duarte Romero
Mary Waterhouse
Peter R. Ebeling
Michael Kimlin
Penelope M. Webb
Rachel E. Neale
Gunter Hartel
Bruce K. Armstrong
Rachel O'Connell
Dallas R. English
Hai Pham
Jolieke C. van der Pols
Alison Venn
David C. Whiteman
Adrian R. Martineau
Source :
International Journal of Epidemiology. 50
Publication Year :
2021
Publisher :
Oxford University Press (OUP), 2021.

Abstract

Background Observational studies link vitamin D deficiency with acute respiratory tract infection (ARTI) but results from randomised controlled trials are heterogeneous. Methods We used data from The D-Health Trial (N = 21,315); ARTI was a pre-specified trial outcome. Participants were men and women aged 60 to 79 years (with volunteers aged up to 84 years), supplemented with monthly doses of 60,000 international units of vitamin D and followed for up to 5 years. Participants were asked to report occurrence of ARTI over the previous month via annual surveys, and a subset of participants completed 8-week respiratory symptom diaries in winter. We used regression models to estimate odds ratios, rate ratios and rate differences. Results Vitamin D supplementation did not reduce the risk of ARTI (survey OR 0.98, 95% CI 0.93 to 1.02; diary OR 0.98, 95% CI 0.83 to 1.15). Analyses of diary data showed that vitamin D reduced the average duration by 0.5 days (95% CI 0.2 to 0.7 days) and the average number of days with severe symptoms by 0.4 days (95% CI 0.3 to 0.6 days). Conclusions Monthly bolus doses of 60,000 IU of vitamin D did not reduce the overall risk of ARTI but slightly reduce the duration of symptoms in the general population. Key messages The reduction in the duration of symptoms suggests a potential impact of vitamin D on the immune response to infection.

Details

ISSN :
14643685 and 03005771
Volume :
50
Database :
OpenAIRE
Journal :
International Journal of Epidemiology
Accession number :
edsair.doi...........b7c837dc72a164f17465b05089146bbc