44 percent less Type 1 diabetes if high level of vitamin D – white skinned military

Created April 2013

Preclinical serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels and risk of type 1 diabetes in a cohort of US military personnel.

Am J Epidemiol. 2013 Mar 1;177(5):411-9. doi: 10.1093/aje/kws243. Epub 2013 Feb 3.

Munger KL, Levin LI, Massa J, Horst R, Orban T, Ascherio A.

Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, Harvard University, Boston, MA 02115, USA. [email protected]

To determine whether serum levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) in young adults are associated with risk of type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1D), we conducted a prospective, nested case-control study among US active-duty military personnel with serum in the US Department of Defense Serum Repository, identifying 310 T1D cases diagnosed between 1997 and 2009 with at least 2 serum samples collected before disease onset and 613 controls matched to cases on age, sex, race/ethnicity, branch of military service, and dates of serum collection. Conditional logistic regression was used to estimate rate ratios and 95% confidence intervals.

Among non-Hispanic whites, those with average 25(OH)D levels of ≥ 100 nmol/L had a 44% lower risk of developing T1D than those with average 25(OH)D levels < 75 nmol/L (rate ratio = 0.56, 95% confidence interval: 0.35, 0.90, P for trend = 0.03) over an average follow-up of 5.4 years. In quintile analyses, T1D risk was highest among individuals whose 25(OH)D levels were in the lowest 20% of those measured.

There was no association between 25(OH)D levels and risk of T1D among non-Hispanic blacks or Hispanics. Low 25(OH)D levels may predispose healthy, young, non-Hispanic white adults to the development of T1D.

PMID: 23380046

See also Vitamin D Life

Tags: Diabetes