Severe pediatric COVID 5.5 more likely if low vitamin D (review of 6 studies) -July 2021

Vitamin D-Deficient Kids Prone To Severe Form Of Covid: IIPHG Review Ahmedabad

Brendan Dabhi 16-07-2021

45.9% kids with severe Covid had Vitamin D deficiency, says analysis;

They Are 5.5 Times More Susceptible To Severe Form Of Covid And More Likely To Be Admitted To ICU, Said The Analysis
Children with low levels of Vitamin D may be 5.5 times more susceptible to getting a severe form of the disease, according to a paper by Indian
Institute of Public Health Gandhinagar.

Their analysis looks at eight major studies across the world that mapped the levels of Vitamin D in children who had to be admitted
to the ICU or had lost their lives to Covid-19.

Peer reviewed and accepted for publication in the Oxford Journal, the paper, titled ‘Low Vitamin D levels and prognosis in a Covid-19 Paediatric population: A systematic review’ by Dr Komal Shah, VP Varna, Apurva Kumar Pandya and Dr Deepak Saxena, conducted meta-analysis on data from eight papers that studies the role or association of Vitamin D with Covid-19 in children.

The analysis found that 45.9% of children who had suffered from the severe form of Covid had Vitamin D deficiency. It also found that children with Vitamin D deficiency were 5.5 times more susceptible to severe Covid and were thus more likely to either be admitted to the ICU or lose their lives to the pandemic.
However, since only one of the eight studies under review had data regarding outcomes in patients who were given Vitamin D supplements, this was not taken into account by the authors of this review.
However, Dr Shah said, “While there is significant lack of data on the effects of Vitamin D supplementation on the severity of Covid in children, the relationship between Vitamin D and other respiratory diseases is well-known.”

Of the eight studies under review, three were from Turkey, two from the US and one each from Italy, Germany and Romania.

Low vitamin D levels and prognosis in a COVID-19 paediatric population: a systematic review

QJM. 2021 Jul 22;hcab202. doi: 10.1093/qjmed/hcab202

Aim: We aim to study the relationship between vitamin D level, risk and severity of COVID-19 infection in pediatric population through systematic review.

Methods: We searched PubMed, CINAHL, EMBASE, Cochrane Library and Google Scholar from December 2019 to June 2021 for retrieving articles studying association between vitamin D deficiency with COVID-19. Qualitative details were synthesized in evidence table and quantitative data was used for deriving pooled estimate through meta-analysis.

Results: After initial search of 2261 articles, eight eligible studies (two reviews) were included in the systematic review. Meta-analysis of the quantitative data (six studies) showed pooled prevalence of vitamin D deficiency as 45.91% (95% CI : 25.148-67.450).
In infected pediatric patients, low levels of vitamin D increased the risk of severe disease (odds ratio - 5.5; 95% CI : 1.560- 19.515; p = 0.008). It was also found that children and adolescents having vitamin D deficiency had greater risk of COVID infection as compared to patients with normal vitamin D levels. Improvement in disease severity with vitamin D supplementation was also noted.

Conclusion: The systematic review showed that almost half of the pediatric COVID patients suffer from vitamin D deficiency. It is also clear that the low level of vitamin D is associated with greater risk of infection and poorer outcome in pediatrics.
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