Higher levels of vitamin D than traditionally considered sufficient may help prevent COVID-19 infection—particularly in Black patients—or lead to less severe outcomes, two new US studies suggest.Deficiency and infectionIn the first, a large single-center observational study published late last week in JAMA Network Open, University of Chicago researchers retrospectively assessed electronic health records of patients who had a vitamin D test in the year before testing for COVID-19 from Mar 3 to Apr 10, 2020.
Those checked or treated for low vitamin D levels in the 2 weeks before coronavirus testing were excluded.Of the 4,638 patients, the risk of a positive coronavirus test result in Black patients was 2.64 times greater if they had a vitamin