Serum vitamin D profile of Nigerian children with asthma: Association with asthma severity and control

Childhood asthma is a chronic inflammatory airway disorder with increasing prevalence even in Africa. Vitamin D, with anti-inflammatory and immune-modulatory properties, may have effects on the severity and level of symptoms control in childhood asthma. We aimed to assess the serum vitamin D levels in children with asthma as related to disease severity and control in a tropical region.

A hospital based comparative cross sectional study was conducted in western Nigeria. Serum vitamin D (25-OH-D) levels of all the children, assayed using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), were compared to the various disease severity and levels of asthma control as well as between the asthmatic and non-asthmatic children.

A total of 206 children (103 asthmatics and 103 non-asthmatics) were recruited with a mean (SD) age of 6.6 (3.7) years. The majority (82.5%) of the children with asthma had mild intermittent form, 63.1% had well controlled symptoms while 33.0% and 3.9% had partly controlled and uncontrolled symptoms, respectively. None of the children were deficient in vitamin D. The mean (SD) serum vitamin D levels of the children with asthma (49.2 [7.2] ng/mL) was significantly lower than those without asthma (51.2 [6.9] ng/mL, P = 0.043). Varying degrees of asthma severity and levels of symptoms control were not affected by serum vitamin D levels.

Children with asthma in Nigeria had marginally but significantly lower mean serum vitamin D levels when compared with their counterparts without asthma. However, serum vitamin D level does not seem to be associated with childhood asthma severity and control in these children with normal serum vitamin D levels.