Is COVID-19 Lockdown Associated with Vitamin D Deficiency?

This work was aimed at assessing whether the ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak, along with associated social restrictions, may have impacted the vitamin status of the general population. To this end, we reviewed all vitamin D test results carried out for outpatients aged 18 years or older during the last three years at an Italian University Hospital. The median serum vitamin D concentrations measured from the first day of Italian lockdown to present time did not significantly differ from those of the same period in the previous two years (78 vs. 77 nmol/L; p=0.277), whilst the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency was found to be marginally lower in 2020 than in the previous two years (16.0% vs. 17.9%; p=0.003). These results suggest that vitamin D deficiency in our province has not increased during the Italian COVID-19 outbreak or in correspondence with the nationwide lockdown.