Positive Effects of Vitamin D Supplementation in Patients Hospitalized for COVID-19: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial

• Published in: Nutrients 2022-07, Vol.14 (15), p.3048
• Main Authors: De Niet, Sophie, Trémège, Mickaël, Coffiner, Monte, Rousseau, Anne-Francoise, Calmes, Doriane, Frix, Anne-Noelle, Gester, Fanny, Delvaux, Muriel, Dive, Anne-Francoise, Guglielmi, Elora, Henket, Monique, Staderoli, Alicia, Maesen, Didier, Louis, Renaud, Guiot, Julien, Cavalier, Etienne
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Anesthesia & intensive care; Anesthésie & soins intensifs; Calciferol; Cholecalciferol - therapeutic use; Clinical outcomes; Clinical trials; Coronaviruses; COVID-19; Dietary Supplements; Disease; Double-Blind Method; Double-blind studies; Food Science; Hospitalization; Human health sciences; Humans; Infections; Intensive care; Laboratories; Length of stay; Mortality; Nutrition and Dietetics; Patients; Pilot Projects; Placebos; Retrospective Studies; SARS-CoV-2; Sciences de la santé humaine; Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; Ventilators; Viral infections; Vitamin D; Vitamin deficiency; Vitamins - therapeutic use
• ISSN: 2072-6643; 2072-6643
• DOI: 10.3390/nu14153048

Retrospective studies showed a relationship between vitamin D status and COVID-19 severity and mortality, with an inverse relation between SARS-CoV-2 positivity and circulating calcifediol levels. The objective of this pilot study was to investigate the effect of vitamin D supplementation on the length of hospital stay and clinical improvement in patients with vitamin D deficiency hospitalized with COVID-19. The study was randomized, double blind and placebo controlled. A total of 50 subjects were enrolled and received, in addition to the best available COVID therapy, either vitamin D (25,000 IU per day over 4 consecutive days, followed by 25,000 IU per week up to 6 weeks) or placebo. The length of hospital stay decreased significantly in the vitamin D group compared to the placebo group (4 days vs. 8 days; = 0.003). At Day 7, a significantly lower percentage of patients were still hospitalized in the vitamin D group compared to the placebo group (19% vs. 54%; = 0.0161), and none of the patients treated with vitamin D were hospitalized after 21 days compared to 14% of the patients treated with placebo. Vitamin D significantly reduced the duration of supplemental oxygen among the patients who needed it (4 days vs. 7 days in the placebo group; = 0.012) and significantly improved the clinical recovery of the patients, as assessed by the WHO scale ( = 0.0048). In conclusion, this study demonstrated that the clinical outcome of COVID-19 patients requiring hospitalization was improved by administration of vitamin D.