{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,29]],"date-time":"2026-09-29T05:28:56Z","timestamp":1790659736552,"version":"4.1.0"},"reference-count":24,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"9","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2020,9,10]],"date-time":"2020-09-10T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1599696000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Nutrients"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Infection with the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) poses an enormous challenge to health care systems throughout the world. Without causal treatment, identification of modifiable prognostic factors may help to improve outcomes. To explore possible associations of vitamin D (VitD) status with disease severity and survival, we studied 185 patients diagnosed with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and treated at our center. VitD status at first presentation was assessed retrospectively using accredited laboratory methods. VitD deficiency was defined as serum total 25-hydroxyvitamin D level &lt; 12 ng\/mL (&lt;30 nM). Primary endpoint was severe course of disease (i.e., need for invasive mechanical ventilation and\/or death, IMV\/D). Within a median observation period of 66 days (range 2\u201392), 23 patients required IMV. A total of 28 patients had IMV\/D, including 16 deaths. Ninety-three (50%) patients required hospitalization (inpatient subgroup). A total of 41 (22%) patients were VitD deficient. When adjusted for age, gender, and comorbidities, VitD deficiency was associated with higher risk of IMV\/D and death (HR 6.12, 95% CI 2.79\u201313.42, p &lt; 0.001 and HR 14.73, 95% CI 4.16\u201352.19, p &lt; 0.001, respectively). Similar correlations were observed in the inpatient subgroup. Our study demonstrates an association between VitD deficiency and severity\/mortality of COVID-19, highlighting the need for interventional studies on VitD supplementation in SARS-CoV-2 infected individuals.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/nu12092757","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2020,9,10]],"date-time":"2020-09-10T09:10:09Z","timestamp":1599729009000},"page":"2757","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":370,"title":["Vitamin D Deficiency and Outcome of COVID-19 Patients"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"12","author":[{"given":"Aleksandar","family":"Radujkovic","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Internal Medicine V, University of Heidelberg, 69121 Heidelberg, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Theresa","family":"Hippchen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Internal Medicine IV, University of Heidelberg, 69121 Heidelberg, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Shilpa","family":"Tiwari-Heckler","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Internal Medicine IV, University of Heidelberg, 69121 Heidelberg, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Saida","family":"Dreher","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Internal Medicine IV, University of Heidelberg, 69121 Heidelberg, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Monica","family":"Boxberger","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Internal Medicine IV, University of Heidelberg, 69121 Heidelberg, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1386-3350","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Uta","family":"Merle","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Internal Medicine IV, University of Heidelberg, 69121 Heidelberg, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,9,10]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"533","DOI":"10.1016\/S1473-3099(20)30120-1","article-title":"An interactive web-based dashboard to track COVID-19 in real time","volume":"20","author":"Dong","year":"2020","journal-title":"Lancet Infect. 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