Does vitamin D supplementation reduce COVID-19 severity? – a systematic review 

This systematic review reports that vitamin D supplementation is effective in reducing COVID19 severity

• Three Meta-analysis of seven systematic reviews showed strong evidence that vitamin D supplementation reduces the risk of mortality in COVID patients. It was also observed that supplementation reduces the need for intensive care and mechanical ventilation requirement. The findings were said to be robust and reliable because the level of heterogeneity was considerably low. Qualitative analysis showed that supplements (oral and IV) are well tolerated, safe and effective in COVID patients. 

10 reviews were included.

• All systematic reviews are limited by their inclusion and exclusion criteria therefore studies could have been left out 

• Only 10 of many published reviews were included and those 1 only included from 3 to 13 studies 

The findings of this study show that vitamin D supplementation is effective in reducing the COVID-19 severity. Hence, vitamin D should be recommended as an adjuvant therapy for COVID-19. However, more robust and larger trials are required to substantiate it further.

• This systematic review assessed the literature to study the effect of vitamin D supplementation on morbidity and mortality in hospitalized COVID-19 patients. Systematic reviews and meta-analysis published from December 2019 to January 2022 presenting the impact of vitamin D supplementation on COVID-19 severity were screened and selected from PubMed and Google scholar.

Shah K, V P V, Sharma U, Mavalankar D. Does vitamin D supplementation reduce COVID-19 severity? – a systematic review. QJM. 2022 Feb 15:hcac040. doi: 10.1093/qjmed/hcac040. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 35166850.