Abstract
Objective: This study was performed to evaluate vitamin D status among chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients and determine the role of vitamin D deficiency in COPD exacerbations.
Methods: This study included 70 patients diagnosed to have COPD following the Global initiative for chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) criteria. Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels were measured. Clinical characteristics and demographic data were recorded for all participants.
Results: A total of 71.4% (50) of patients were classified as GOLD stage II and 28.6% (20) of patients were GOLD stage III. Vitamin D levels for stage II and III patients were 14.56 +/- 4.03 ng/mL and 14.40 +/- 5.40 ng/ml, respectively. Mean number of acute exacerbations of COPD (AECOPD) for all patients was 3.4 +/- 0.79 over the last year. Regression analysis model showed that low vitamin D levels were significantly associated with the mean number of AECOPD (R2 0.468, SE 0.58, p < 0.001). Interestingly, vitamin D deficient patients develop frequent AECOPD (3.58 +/- 0.62) compared to vitamin D insufficient patients (2.40 +/- 0.97) (F 5.700, 95% CI 1.64-0.72, P 0.020).
Conclusions: Vitamin D deficiency was prevalent among Saudi COPD patients and hypo-vitaminosis D was significantly associated with acute exacerbation of COPD.