Group: Vitamin D

Member:
1. Syfa Salmanita Pramesti (2008010043)
2. Keisya Haelal Muna (2008010053)
3. Puspita Indah Noor Rabbani (2008010054)

Role of Vitamin D in Preventing of COVID-19

Result
Results were available for 2724 COVID-19 tests conducted on1474 individuals. Complete data on
(25(OH)D) concentration and covariates were available for 348,598 UK Biobank participants. Of
these, 449 had a positive COVID-19 test. Table 1presents study participants by presence or absence
of positive COVID-19 test result. Median 25(OH)D concentration measured at recruitment was lower
in patients who subsequently had confirmed COVID-19 infection (28.7 (IQR 10.0e43.8) nmol/L)
than other participants (32.7 (IQR 10.0e47.2) nmol/L). It predictedCOVID-19 infection univariably
(Table 2; OR¼0.99, 95% CI0.99e0.999, p¼0.013), but not after adjustment for covariates (OR¼1.00;
95% CI¼0.998e1.01; p¼0.208). Exposures that did predict COVID-19 status in the multivariable
logistic regression were male sex (OR¼1.41; 95% CI¼1.16e1.71; p- value ¼ 0.001), higher
socioeconomic deprivation (highest vs lowest Town send quintile OR¼1.89; 95% CI¼1.37e2.60;p-
value value¼0.016),being overweight (OR¼1.34;95% CI¼1.04e1.72;p-Value ¼0.024) or obese
(OR¼1.62; 95%CI¼1.23e2.14;p-value¼0.001), and non-white ethnicity (blacks OR¼ 4.30, 95%
CI¼2.92e6.31,p-value<0.001;South AsiansOR¼2.42, 95% CI¼1.50e3.93,p-value<0.001) (Fig. 1).

Discussion
Our findings are consistent with previous studies [7,19] in demonstrating a higher risk of confirmed
COVID-19 infection in ethnic minority groups. Vitamin D has been suggested as possibly protective
of COVID- 19 infection [20e22] and, if so, could plausibly play a role in ethnic variations in COVID-
19 infection. However, we found no association between 25(OH)D and COVID- 19 infection after
adjusting for potential confounders. Therefore, despite 25(OH)D concentration being lower in black
and minority ethnic participants, there was no evidence that it might play a role in their higher risk of
COVID-19 infection. It has been suggested in some media outlets that language barriers may
contribute to ethnic differences in COVID-19 risk. This is unlikely to contribute to the risk we
observed in UK Biobank because all participants spoke English (albeit with the possibility of fluency
variation). The association with ethnicity was only slightly attenuated after adjustment for
socioeconomic and lifestyle differences in white and black and minority ethnic participants; the risk
of COVID-19 remained around 4-fold in black participants and more than 2-fold in South Asians.
Further studies are required to determine the mechanisms underlying ethnic variations in risk
ofCOVID-19 infection and its severity. It may be that pathways related to cardio metabolic
conditions or differences in cardio respiratory reserve, or potentially other social factors, are more
relevant, as we have recently discussed [23]

Conclusion
Our analyses of UK Biobank data provided no evidence to sup-port a potential role for (25 (OH)D)
concentration to explain susceptibility to COVID-19 infection either overall or in explaining
differences between ethnic groups.

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