Quick thread on a new #VitaminD study published in @nature @SciReports. Baseline: High share of severe COVID-19 cases in a hospital in India are Vitamin D deficient. Having that said, I'm not sure if the study is telling us anything new. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-77093-z … (1/n)
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The study differentiates between two groups admitted to hospital due to COVID-19: asymptomatic patients (group A) and patients requiring admission to ICU (group B). It measures the patients' Vitamin D levels and monitors the course of their disease. (2/n)
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In the mild group A, 31.86% were Vitamin D deficient, in the severe group B, 96.82% were Vitamin D deficient. This significant difference partly translated into higher inflammatory markers for group B. Group B also had a much higher fatality rate than group A. (3/n)
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Now the important stuff: Does the study establish any causal relationship? No. First of all, the groups weren't similar upon admission. The average age of group A was 11 years lower than that of group B. Also comorbidities weren't balanced across the groups. So there were.. (4/n)
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...many other potential factors that would be correlated with both the Vitamin D deficit and the higher fatality in group B compared to group A. Second, Vitamin D wasn't administered as part of the study, so it says nothing about the short-run effects of boosting Vitamin D. (5/n)
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My takeaway from the study is that a Vitamin D deficit is an indicator of poor health, and that poor health increases the likelihood of a severe course of COVID-19 - which we totally knew already. But the means of fixing your health aren't (only) fixing your Vitamin D. (6/n)
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I'm surprised that the authors "recommend mass administration of vitamin D supplements to population at risk for COVID-19" based on their results or rather on the absence of such. It probably wouldn't do harm, but there's no evidence it would do good regarding COVID-19. (7/n)
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Looks like you've covered it lol. Another terrible vitamin D study
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Replying to @GidMK
I'm never quite sure whether researchers don't realize that even if they have nothing to say, people will still interpret them as saying something, or whether they're intentionally hoping for this to happen to milk some nothing result to the max.
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Replying to @AndreasShrugged
I think it's often a combination of the two tbh
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