The association of vitamin D deficiency with hemogram-derived inflammatory biomarkers in children

Background and aims: One of the extraosseous effects of vitamin D is that it is a potent modulator of inflammatory processes. Many studies have demonstrated the inverse association between vitamin D and inflammation. Therefore, we hypothesize that vitamin D deficiency may affect the inflammatory markers derived from hemogram parameters [neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet to lymphocyte ratio (PLR), lymphocyte to monocyte ratio (LMR), platelet distribution width (PDW), red blood cell distribution width (RDW)] in healthy children.

Methods and results: We conducted a retrospective study on healthy children. From 2015 to 2020, 16,321 children with simultaneous vitamin D and hemogram measurements were identified from electronic records. Participants were divided into 2 groups according to whether they had vitamin D deficiency or not. The relationship between vitamin D status and the levels of inflammatory markers was analyzed. All inflammatory markers showed statistically significant differences between vitamin D status (p < 0.001 for all). Vitamin D levels were significantly negatively correlated with NLR (r = -0.285), PLR (r = -0.257), PDW (r = -0.181), and positively correlated with LMR (r = 0.218), and RDW (r = 0.057). In logistic regression analysis, age (OR = 1.15, 95% CI: 1.14-1.16), gender (OR = 1.66, 95% CI: 1.54-1.78), LMR (OR = 0.96, 95% CI: 0.95-0.98), PLR (OR = 1.003, 95% CI: 1.001-1.004), and RDW (OR = 1.10, 95%CI: 1.07-1.13) were found to be independent predictors for vitamin D deficiency.

Conclusions: Statistically significant differences were detected between vitamin D status and inflammatory parameters. However, the difference between the median values of vitamin D groups was very small and the degree of correlation was very weak. Therefore, the clinical significance of the difference should be questioned.