{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,6]],"date-time":"2026-03-06T06:48:28Z","timestamp":1772779708963,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":56,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"2","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,4]],"date-time":"2026-03-04T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1772582400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001322","name":"South African Medical Research Council","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001322","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]},{"name":"South African National Research Foundation"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Epidemiologia"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Background\/Objectives: Vitamin D plays a role in cellular regulation and immune processes relevant to cervical carcinogenesis, yet data on vitamin D status and its determinants in high-burden settings such as South Africa remain scarce. This paper therefore describes the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency, insufficiency, and sufficiency, and explores associated factors among women with cervical lesions. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among 103 women aged 18\u201381 years. Women were referred to Nelson Mandela Academic Hospital due to cervical cancer, high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (HSILs), or atypical squamous cells\u2014cannot exclude HSIL, or low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions, or atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance. The total serum 25(OH)D (D2 + D3) was quantified using the MAGLUMI 25-OH Vitamin D chemiluminescent immunoassay kit on the MAGLUMI X3 Fully Automatic Chemiluminescence Immunoassay Analyzer (Snibe Diagnostic, Shenzhen New Industries Biomedical Engineering Co., Ltd., Shenzhen, China). Serum vitamin D was categorized according to the Endocrine Society Task Force guidelines. Results: Vitamin D insufficiency was observed in 46.60% of participants and deficiency in 26.21% while only 27.18% had sufficient levels. Overall, vitamin D deficiency or insufficiency was more common than sufficiency (72.82%; 27.18%, p &lt; 0.0001). Among HIV-positive women, 78.26% had vitamin D deficiency or insufficiency compared with 63.33% of HIV-negative women; however, this difference was not statistically significant. Vitamin D deficiency was most prevalent in women with healthy body mass index (BMI, 46.40%) values and decreased significantly with increasing BMI values (p = 0.008). Conclusions: Vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency were common among women with cervical lesions in this rural South African population. Associations with BMI suggest context-specific influences on vitamin D status. Owing to the study\u2019s cross-sectional design and lack of normal cervical cytology participants, the findings are descriptive and exploratory, underscoring the need for longitudinal and comparative research to better define the role of vitamin D in cervical disease.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/epidemiologia7020040","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,4]],"date-time":"2026-03-04T15:01:07Z","timestamp":1772636467000},"page":"40","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Vitamin D Serum Status and Associated Factors Among Women with Cervical Lesions"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"7","author":[{"given":"Zinhle","family":"Simelane","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, Walter Sisulu University, Mthatha 5100, South Africa"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Likhona S.","family":"Masika","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, Walter Sisulu University, Mthatha 5100, South Africa"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8393-1198","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Charles B.","family":"Businge","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Walter Sisulu University, Mthatha 5100, South Africa"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9073-4777","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Zizipho Z. A.","family":"Mbulawa","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, Walter Sisulu University, Mthatha 5100, South Africa"},{"name":"National Health Laboratory Service, Nelson Mandela Academic Hospital, Mthatha 5100, South Africa"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,4]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","first-page":"1","article-title":"Exploring vitamin D metabolism and function in cancer","volume":"50","author":"Jeon","year":"2018","journal-title":"Exp. Mol. Med."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Dallavalasa, S., Tulimilli, S.V., Bettada, V.G., Karnik, M., Uthaiah, C.A., Anantharaju, P.G., Nataraj, S.M., Ramashetty, R., Sukoche-va, O.A., and Tse, E. (2024). Vitamin D in cancer prevention and treatment: A review of epidemiological, preclinical, and cellular studies. 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