Home Allergy Vitamin D Supplements Do Not Reduce Asthma Exacerbations Overall

Vitamin D Supplements Do Not Reduce Asthma Exacerbations Overall

Supplements reduce risk among children with low serum 25(OH)D and have beneficial effects in children with atopic dermatitis, allergic rhinitis

MONDAY, Nov. 21, 2022 (HealthDay News) — Vitamin D supplementation does not reduce the risk for asthma exacerbation in children overall, but does reduce the risk in those with low serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25[OH]D) concentrations, according to a review recently published in Nutrients.

Qinyuan Li, M.D., from the Chongqing Key Laboratory of Pediatrics in China, and colleagues conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to examine the effects of vitamin D supplementation in children with allergic diseases. Data were included from 32 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing vitamin D supplementation with placebo among 2,347 children.

The researchers found that compared with placebo, vitamin D supplementation did not reduce the risk for asthma exacerbations overall (risk ratio, 0.84; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.65 to 1.08; P = 0.18), but there was a reduction observed in the risk for asthma exacerbation for children with baseline serum 25(OH)D <10 ng/mL (risk ratio, 0.48; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.28 to 0.83; P = 0.009). A significant reduction was seen in the Scoring Atopic Dermatitis or the Eczema Area and Severity Index scores in children with atopic dermatitis with vitamin D versus placebo (standardized mean difference, −0.5; 95 percent confidence interval, −0.87 to −0.12; P = 0.009). For children with allergic rhinitis, vitamin D supplementation reduced the symptom-medication score compared with placebo (mean, 43.7 versus 57.8).

“Large-scale and well-designed RCTs are needed to confirm these conclusions and investigate the optimum regimen of vitamin D and the patients who would benefit most from vitamin D supplementation,” the authors write.

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