The role of Vitamin D in the prevention of Coronavirus Disease 2019 infection and mortality

Background/Aims: WHO declared SARS-Cov-2 a global pandemic. The aims of this paper are to assess if there is any association between mean levels of vitamin D in various countries and cases respectively mortality caused by COVID-19.

Methods: We have identified the mean levels of vitamin D for 20 Europeans Countries for which we have also got the data regarding the morbidity and mortality caused by COVID-19.

Results: The mean level of vitamin D (average 56mmol/L, STDEV 10.61) in each country was strongly associated with the number of cases/1M (mean 295.95, STDEV 298.73 p=0.004, respectively with the mortality/1M (mean 5.96, STDEV 15.13, p < 0.00001).

Discussion: Vitamin D levels are severely low in the aging population especially in Spain, Italy and Switzerland. This is also the most vulnerable group of population for COVID-19.

Conclusions: We believe, that we can advise Vitamin D supplementation to protect against SARS-CoV2 infection.

(Research Square Preprint. Petre Cristian Ilie, Simina Stefanescu, Lee Smith)