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Spurious Correlation? A review of the relationship between Vitamin D and Covid-19 infection and mortality

Kumar, V.; Srivastava, A.

2020-05-26 infectious diseases
10.1101/2020.05.25.20110338 medRxiv
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The study reviews the evidence presented in a recent study linking vitamin D levels and Covid-19 infection and mortality. It was argued that correlation alone may not be useful in establishing a relationship between vitamin D levels and Covid-19 infections and mortality. Appropriate controls need to be included for improved understanding of the relationship. We proposed life expectancy as a potential control. Including this control in a regression model, we find that vitamin D levels are not a statistically significant predictor of Covid-19 infections or mortality. Life expectancy, on the other hand, was found to be statistically significant predictor of infections and mortality at country level.

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