Vitamin D Status in Hospitalized Chronically Ill Patients

ABSTRACT

Objectives: Vitamin D deficiency is rarely considered or treated in critically ill patients. Deficiency of 25-hydroxy vitamin D [25(OH)D] prior to hospital admission might be a significant predictor of short- and long-term all cause patient mortality in a critically ill patient. The aim of this work is to investigate the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in hospitalized patients and its relation to the length of stay and outcome of hospitalization.

Methods: Prospective cohort study performed on 80 patients admitted with acute deterioration of their chronic illness. Four groups of diseases were included, namely, chronic liver diseases (CLD), chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD), cerebrovascular stroke (CVS), and heart failure (HF). The patients were followed up until their discharge, or transfer, or death. Patients were sampled for their vitamin D level on admission and were divided according to their vitamin D status into sufficient, insufficient, and deficient. Statistical methods and analysis of the present study were conducted using the SPSS V17 program.

Results: Vitamin D level had a significant inverse correlation with length of hospital stay (r = –0.648) (p < 0.001). In vitamin D-deficient and -insufficient groups, there was a significant difference between survivors and nonsurvivors as regards vitamin D levels and an inverse correlation between vitamin D level and outcome of hospital admission.

Conclusions: Vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency are significantly associated with a longer hospital stay and a poor outcome of hospital admission in comparison to control.

KEYWORDS:

• Vitamin D
• hospitalization
• chronic diseases

Ethical approval

This study has been approved by Ain Shams University, Faculty of Medicine, Research Ethics Committee, FWA 00017858. All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This study was personally supported, with no other financial support or funding.