Association of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations with all-cause and cause-specific mortality among individuals with diabetes mellitus
Research Design and Methods: This study included 6329 adults with diabetes from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III) and NHANES 2001-2014. Death outcomes were ascertained by linkage to National Death Index records through 31 December 2015. Cox proportional hazard models were used to estimate hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence (CIs) for mortality from all causes, cardiovascular disease (CVD), and cancer.
Results: The weighted mean (95% CI) level of serum 25(OH)D was 57.7 (56.6, 58.8) nmol/L, and 46.6% had deficient vitamin D (<50 nmol/L [20 ng/mL]). Higher serum 25(OH)D levels were significantly associated with lower levels of glucose, insulin, HOMA-IR, HbA1c, blood lipids, and C-reactive protein at baseline (all Ptrend<0.05). During 55126 person-years of follow-up, 2056 deaths were documented, including 605 CVD deaths and 309 cancer deaths. After multivariate adjustment, higher serum 25(OH)D levels were significantly and linearly associated with lower all-cause and CVD mortality: there was a 31% reduced risk of all-cause mortality and a 38% reduced risk of CVD mortality per one unit increment in natural log-transformed 25(OH)D (both P<0.001). Compared with participants with 25(OH)D <25 nmol/L, the multivariate-adjusted HRs and 95% CI for participants with 25(OH)D >75 nmol/L were 0.59 (0.43, 0.83) for all-cause mortality (Ptrend=0.003), 0.50 (0.29, 0.86) for CVD mortality (Ptrend=0.02), and 0.49 (0.23, 1.04) for cancer mortality (Ptrend=0.12).
Conclusions: In a nationally representative sample of US adults with diabetes, higher serum 25(OH)D levels were significantly associated with lower all-cause and CVD mortality. These findings suggest that maintaining adequate vitamin D status may lower mortality risk in individuals with diabetes.
