Vitamin D status and its association with cardiometabolic risk factors in Korean adults based on a 2008-2010 Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey

Recent studies suggest that vitamin D deficiency and cardiometabolic disorders are becoming increasingly more prevalent across multiple populations. However, there is a lack of comprehensive data for Korean adults. We investigated the vitamin D status, the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency and its association with metabolic syndrome (MS) risk in Korean adults aged 20 years or older. The study subjects (n = 18,305) were individuals who participated in the Korean National Health Examination and Nutrition Survey (KNHANES) in 2008-2010. Vitamin D status (25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D]) was categorized as < 20, 21-29, and ≥ 30 ng/mL, which are the cut-off points for deficiency, insufficiency and normal limits. A wide variety of cardiometabolic risk factors were compared according to the vitamin D status. Vitamin D deficiency was found in 53.9% of men and 70.5% of women. Mean BMI, systolic BP, HbA1c and low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) were highest in the vitamin D deficiency group in both genders. Further, the MS was most prevalent in the vitamin D deficiency group in both genders (12.3%, P = 0.002 in men and 9.2%, P < 0.001 in women). Compared to the vitamin D normal group, the adjusted odds ratio (ORs) (95% confidence interval [95% CI]) for MS in the vitamin D deficiency group were 1.46 (1.05-2.02) in men and 1.60 (1.21-2.11) in women, after adjusting for confounding variables. In conclusion, Vitamin D deficiency is a very common health problem in Korean adults and is independently associated with the increasing risk of MS.