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Double COVID-19 Confirmed Case Fatality Rate in Countries with High Elderly Female Vitamin D Deficiency Prevalence

Backer, A.; Mageswaran, M.

2020-06-16 infectious diseases
10.1101/2020.06.13.20130484 medRxiv
Show abstract

A number of clues point to a possible role of vitamin D in fighting COVID-19: a reduction in case growth speed with solar zenith angle, higher fatality rate in black people, lower fatality rate in populations that spend more time outdoors. Yet a direct demonstration that vitamin D deficiency is associated with COVID-19 fatalities has remained elusive. We show here in a comparison of 32 countries that countries with high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency among elderly females show a confirmed case fatality rate twice as high as those with low prevalence. We then show that this effect cannot be explained by differences in life expectancy between countries. A mechanistic role for vitamin D in the severity of COVID-19 is proposed. One Sentence SummaryVitamin D deficiency among elderly females is associated with countrywide COVID-19 confirmed case fatality rates up to twice as high as those of countries with low vitamin D deficiency prevalence.

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