Concentrations of Serum Vitamin D and the Metabolic Syndrome Among U.S. Adults

TLDR

Vitamin D levels are linked to lower diabetes risk, glucose concentration, and insulin resistance, and may be a risk factor for metabolic syndrome, yet the precise relationship remains unclear. The study examined the association between serum vitamin D concentrations and metabolic syndrome in a large nationally representative U.S. sample.

Abstract

Accumulating research suggests that circulating concentrations of vitamin D may be inversely related to the prevalence of diabetes (1,2,3,4), to the concentration of glucose (4,5,6,7,8), and to insulin resistance (4,5,8,9). In addition, vitamin D deficiency may be a risk factor for the metabolic syndrome (8,10), a highly prevalent condition among U.S. adults (11). Much remains to be learned, however, about the relationship between vitamin D status and metabolic syndrome. Because this topic has received scant attention and the available information was derived from a small clinically based sample, we sought to examine the nature and strength of the association between serum concentrations of vitamin D and the metabolic syndrome in a large nationally representative sample of the U.S. population. Between 1988 and 1994, a representative sample of the noninstitutionalized civilian U.S. population, selected using a multistage stratified sampling design, participated in the NHANES III (Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey). Survey participants were interviewed and invited for a clinical examination (12,13, …