{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,18]],"date-time":"2026-03-18T18:37:48Z","timestamp":1773859068274,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":26,"publisher":"Springer Science and Business Media LLC","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,9,14]],"date-time":"2021-09-14T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1631577600000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0"},{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,9,14]],"date-time":"2021-09-14T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1631577600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100000289","name":"Cancer Research UK","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["C31250\/A22804"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["C31250\/A22804"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100000289","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["link.springer.com"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Sci Rep"],"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title>\n                  <jats:p>A growing body of evidence suggests that vitamin D deficiency has been associated with an increased susceptibility to viral and bacterial respiratory infections. In this study, we aimed to examine the association between vitamin D and COVID-19 risk and outcomes. We used logistic regression to identify associations between vitamin D variables and COVID-19 (risk of infection, hospitalisation and death) in 417,342 participants from UK Biobank. We subsequently performed a Mendelian Randomisation (MR) study to look for evidence of a causal effect. In total, 1746 COVID-19 cases (399 deaths) were registered between March and June 2020. We found no significant associations between COVID-19 infection risk and measured 25-OHD levels after adjusted for covariates, but this finding is limited by the fact that the vitamin D levels were measured on average 11\u00a0years before the pandemic. Ambient UVB was strongly and inversely associated with COVID-19 hospitalization and death overall and consistently after stratification by BMI and ethnicity. We also observed an interaction that suggested greater protective effect of genetically-predicted vitamin D levels when ambient UVB radiation is stronger. The main MR analysis did not show that genetically-predicted vitamin D levels are causally associated with COVID-19 risk (OR\u2009=\u20090.77, 95% CI 0.55\u20131.11, P\u2009=\u20090.160), but MR sensitivity analyses indicated a potential causal effect (weighted mode MR: OR\u2009=\u20090.72, 95% CI 0.55\u20130.95, P\u2009=\u20090.021; weighted median MR: OR\u2009=\u20090.61, 95% CI 0.42\u20130.92, P\u2009=\u20090.016). Analysis of MR-PRESSO did not find outliers for any instrumental variables and suggested a potential causal effect (OR\u2009=\u20090.80, 95% CI 0.66\u20130.98, p-val\u2009=\u20090.030). In conclusion, the effect of vitamin D levels on the risk or severity of COVID-19 remains controversial, further studies are needed to validate vitamin D supplementation as a means of protecting against worsened COVID-19.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1038\/s41598-021-97679-5","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,9,14]],"date-time":"2021-09-14T06:03:16Z","timestamp":1631599396000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/springer_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":23,"title":["An observational and Mendelian randomisation study on vitamin D and COVID-19 risk in UK Biobank"],"prefix":"10.1038","volume":"11","author":[{"given":"Xue","family":"Li","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Jos","family":"van Geffen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Michiel","family":"van Weele","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Xiaomeng","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Yazhou","family":"He","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Xiangrui","family":"Meng","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Maria","family":"Timofeeva","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Harry","family":"Campbell","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Malcolm","family":"Dunlop","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Lina","family":"Zgaga","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Evropi","family":"Theodoratou","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"297","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,9,14]]},"reference":[{"key":"97679_CR1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.3310\/hta23020","volume":"23","author":"AR Martineau","year":"2019","unstructured":"Martineau, A. 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