Abstract
Objective: In this study, we aimed to determine the prevalence and
clinical importance of vitamin D deficiency in children and adolescent
patients who were hospitalized with the diagnosis of COVID-19. Material
and Methods: 40 patients who were diagnosed to have COVID-19 and
hospitalized with the real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain
reaction (RT-PCR) method were included. The control group consisted of
45 healthy patients with normal vitamin D levels. The age of admission,
clinical and laboratory data, and 25-hydroxycholecalciferol (25-OHD) and
parathormone (PTH) levels were recorded. Those with vitamin D levels
which are below 20 ng/ml were determined as Group 1 and those with ≥20
ng/ml as Group 2. Results: The median levels of vitamin D level were
13.14 (4.19-69.28) in the group of patients with COVID-19 and
34.81(3.8-77.42) in the control group. Compared to the control group,
there was a statistically significantly lower vitamin D level (p
<0.001) in the COVID-19 patient group. At admission, the
symptom of fever was significantly higher in Group 1 than in Group 2 (p
=0.038). The distribution of disease severity according to vitamin D
levels was not found significantly different. In conclusion; our study
is the first to evaluate vitamin D levels and its relationship with
clinical findings in pediatric patients diagnosed with COVID-19. There
are significantly lower levels of vitamin D in children with COVID-19
than those in the control group. This shows that vitamin D, which is
effective in the immunological mechanism, also has an effect in the
physiopathology of the disease.