Association of vitamin D status with metabolic and inflammatory factors in adults with obesity

Obesity and vitamin D deficiency are both have become major public health challenges worldwide which are associated with an increased risk of metabolic diseases. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between vitamin D status with metabolic and inflammatory markers in adults with obesity.

In this case-control study, 90 obese subjects with vitamin D deficiency were selected as the case group and 90 obese subjects with adequate vitamin D status were selected as the control group. Demographic, anthropometric, and dietary data were collected for each participant. Then, the Homeostatic Model Assessment for Insulin Resistance (HOMA-IR) and fasting serum concentrations of glucose (FBS), insulin, total cholesterol (TC), low-density lipoprotein (LDL-c), high-density lipoprotein (HDL-c) and triglyceride (TG) as metabolic factors and serum levels of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) as inflammatory marker were measured in the participants.  

The obese subjects with vitamin D deficiency had higher serum concentrations of TC (p=0.001), LDL-C (p=0.003), hs-CRP (p=0.004), parathyroid hormone (p=0.001), and HOMA-IR (p=0.020) compared to the counterparts in the vitamin D sufficiency group. Likewise, vitamin D deficient subjects were at higher risk for having hypercholesrolemia (OR: 2.7, p=0.012), high LDL-c (OR: 2.34, p=0.017), and high hs-CRP (OR: 1.97, p=0.032) than vitamin D sufficient subjects, after controlling for confounders.

vitamin D deficiency in obese subjects was found to be strongly related to higher risk of metabolic and inflammatory disorders.