Association Between Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D Concentrations and Mortality Among Adults With Prediabetes

To investigate the association of circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] levels with mortality among adults with prediabetes.

This retrospective cohort study included 15,195 adults with prediabetes (aged ≥20 years) from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) III and NHANES 2001-2014. Mortality from all causes, cardiovascular disease (CVD), and cancer was linked to National Death Index mortality data.

The median (interquartile range) concentration of serum 25(OH)D was 60.5 (45.3, 77.4) nmol/L, and only 23.1% had sufficient vitamin D (≥75 nmol/L). Elevated serum 25(OH)D concentrations were significantly associated with lower levels of insulin, homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance, triglyceride, and C-reactive protein, and higher levels of high-density lipoprotein at baseline (all Ptrend < 0.05). During a median follow up of 10.7 years, 3765 deaths (including 1080 CVD deaths and 863 cancer deaths) were identified. Compared with participants with 25(OH)D <30 nmol/L, the multivariate-adjusted hazard ratios and 95% confidence intervals for participants with 25(OH)D ≥ 75 nmol/L were 0.66 (0.53, 0.82) for all-cause mortality (Ptrend < 0.001), 0.66 (0.48, 0.89) for CVD mortality (Ptrend = 0.001), and 0.82 (0.49, 1.35) for cancer mortality (Ptrend = 0.32). For per-unit increment in ln-transformed 25(OH)D, there was a 27% lower risk of all-cause mortality and a 34% lower risk of CVD mortality (both P < 0.01).

These findings suggested that higher serum 25(OH)D concentrations were associated with lower all-cause and CVD mortality among individuals with prediabetes.