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\n 19 July 2025
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There is a clear link between low vitamin D levels and an increased risk of being hospitalised by COVID-19<\/p>\n
As the latest wave of COVID-19 shows no signs of abating, University of South Australia experts say it\u2019s not just booster shots that could offer protection \u2013 healthy levels of vitamin D may also play a role.<\/p>\n
In new research conducted in partnership with the King\u2019s College London<\/a> and Guy\u2019s and St Thomas\u2019 NHS Foundation<\/a>, researchers found a clear link between low vitamin D levels and an increased risk of being hospitalised by the virus.<\/p>\n No association was found between low vitamin D and the risk of catching COVID-19.<\/p>\n The study assessed more than 150,000 participants in the UK Biobank, undertaking analyses to determine whether the risk of COVID-19 was higher among people with Vitamin D deficiency (<25nmol\/L in their blood) and vitamin D insufficiency (25-49 nmol\/L) compared with those who had normal levels of Vitamin D (50+ nmol\/L). They also compared risk of being hospitalised due to COVID-19 across these three groups.<\/p>\n In Australia, nearly a quarter of adults \u2013 about four million people \u2013 are vitamin D deficient<\/a>. Globally, about one billion people have vitamin D deficiency, with 50% of the population showing insufficient vitamin D levels.<\/a><\/p>\n Australian-based researcher and epidemiologist, UniSA\u2019s Dr Kerri Beckmann, says the findings could identify vulnerable people and guide future public health advice.<\/p>\n \u201cVitamin D plays a key role in regulating the immune system, so it\u2019s plausible that low levels may influence how the body responds to infections like COVID-19,\u201d Dr Beckmann says.<\/p>\n \u201cOur study found that people with a vitamin D deficiency or insufficiency were more likely to be hospitalised with COVID-19 than those with healthy levels of Vitamin D \u2013 but they weren\u2019t more likely to catch the virus in the first place.\u201d<\/p>\n The study also explored associations between vitamin D and COVID-19 outcomes among cancer patients, as well as across different ethnic groups.<\/p>\n People of Asian or African\/Afro-Caribbean heritage were found to have a slightly higher risk of infection if they had low vitamin D levels, though the association between low vitamin D and severe illness was only seen in people of Caucasian backgrounds.<\/p>\n No association was found between vitamin D and COVID-19 outcomes among people previously diagnosed with cancer, though researchers caution this may reflect the smaller sample size.<\/p>\n Dr Beckmann says that while risk from COVID-19 has lessened over time, the virus remains a public health concern.<\/p>\n \u201cCOVID-19 may not be the threat it once was, but it still affects peoples\u2019 well-being,\u201d Dr Beckmann says.<\/p>\n \u201cUnderstanding who is most at risk helps those individuals take extra precautions, including monitoring their vitamin D levels.<\/p>\n \u201cIt could be that people who are in poor health to start with may also have low vitamin D levels. So, at this stage, we don\u2019t know whether vitamin D supplements in themselves could reduce the severity of COVID-19.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s certainly an area worth exploring \u2013 especially as we continue to live with the virus.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/p>\n Contact for interview: \u00a0Dr Kerri Beckmann E: Kerri.Beckmann@unisa.edu.au<\/a>
Media contact: Annabel Mansfield M: +61 479 182 489 E: Annabel.Mansfield@unisa.edu.au<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
19 July 2025
There is a clear link between low vitamin D levels and an increased risk…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5388,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[64,63,7273,4880,7274,137,7275,1623,7276,7277,1290],"class_list":["post-5387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-coronavirus","tag-covid-19","tag-epidemiology","tag-health","tag-hospitalisation","tag-immune-system","tag-immunity","tag-virus","tag-vitamin-d"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5387\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}