Serum Vitamin D and Change in Lipid Levels over 5 years: the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study
Kamil F. Faridi Nutr 2017
Highlights
•We investigated the longitudinal association between Vit D deficiency and lipids.
•Vit D deficiency was associated with lower HDL cholesterol over time.
•Vit D deficiency was associated with higher Total Cholesterol/HDL ratio over time.
•More data are needed to determine if Vit D supplementation improves lipid levels.
25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] deficiency is associated with increased cardiovascular disease risk, perhaps mediated through dyslipidemia. Deficient 25(OH)D is cross-sectionally associated with dyslipidemia, but little is known about longitudinal lipid changes. Our objective was to determine the association of 25(OH)D deficiency with longitudinal lipid changes and risk of incident dyslipidemia.
Research Methods
This is a longitudinal community-based study of 13,039 ARIC participants who had 25(OH)D and lipids measured at baseline (1990-1992) and lipids re-measured in 1993-1994 and 1996-1998. Mixed-effect models were used to assess associations of 25(OH)D with lipid trends after adjusting for clinical characteristics and for baseline or incident use of lipid-lowering therapy. Risk of incident dyslipidemia was determined for those without baseline dyslipidemia.
Results
Baseline mean±SD age was 57±6 years and 25(OH)D was 24±9 ng/ml. Participants were 57% women, 24% black. Over a mean follow-up of 5.2 years, the fully-adjusted average differences (95% CI) comparing deficient (<20 ng/ml) to optimal (≥30 ng/ml) 25(OH)D were: total cholesterol (TC) -2.40 mg/dl (-4.21, -0.60), HDL-cholesterol -3.02 mg/dl (-3.73, -2.32) and TC/HDL-C ratio 0.18 (0.11, 0.26). Those with deficient 25(OH)D compared to optimal had modestly increased risk of incident dyslipidemia in demographic-adjusted models [RR 1.19 (1.02-1.39)], which was attenuated in fully-adjusted models [1.12 (0.95-1.32)].
Conclusions
Deficient 25(OH)D was prospectively associated with lower TC and HDL-C and greater TC/HDL-C ratio after considering factors such as diabetes and adiposity. Further work including randomized controlled trials is needed to better assess how 25(OH)D may impact lipids and cardiovascular risk.