Effect of vitamin D status on lipid profile in premenopausal women: a cross-sectional study

High lipid levels play important roles in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis and some authors suggest vitamin D deficiency as a risk factor for atherosclerosis. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of vitamin D status on lipid profile in premenopausal women.

A total of 315 nonsmoking premenopausal female volunteers without diabetes mellitus were included in the study. Patients were divided into four subgroups. The groups were as follows: patients with less than or equal to 12 ng/ml (group 1, n=126) vitamin D levels, between 20 and 12 ng/ml (group 2, n=48), between 30 and 20 ng/ml (group 3, n=21), and at least 30 ng/ml (group 4, n=120) vitamin D levels. Total cholesterol (TC), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), triglyceride (TG), and non-HDL-C levels of the four groups were compared.

HDL-C levels of group 4 were the highest (P=0.03), and TG and non-HDL-C levels of group 1 were the highest (P=0.04, 0.016, respectively) in all groups. There was no significant difference between serum parathormone, calcium, and phosphorus levels of the four groups (P=0.778, 0.121, 0.184, respectively). In unadjusted analysis, 25-hydroxy vitamin D levels were found to be correlated negatively with BMI (P=0.0005), LDL-C (P=0.01), and non-HDL-C (P=0.003) and correlated positively with HDL-C levels (P=0.006). After adjustments for age, sex, BMI, and log parathormone levels were made, no correlation was found between 25-hydroxy vitamin D and lipid (TC, LDL-C, HDL-C, and TG) levels (P=0.91, 0.06, 0.95, 0.79, respectively).

There may be an association between vitamin D insufficiency and dyslipidemia. However, this association may depend on obesity.