The prevalence of Type 2 Diabetes (T2D) is sharply on the rise, both in Canada and worldwide. As addressing its root causes, i.e., promotion of healthy lifestyles and weight management, has been largely unsuccessful, new clues for primary prevention seem essential to curbing the increasing public health burden of T2D. In the present study, we examined whether improvements in vitamin D status, i.e., serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] concentrations, are paralleled by a reduction in the risk for reaching adverse glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) levels in a community sample of non-diabetic volunteers participating in a preventive health program that encourages the use of vitamin D. Repeated observations on 6565 participants revealed that serum 25(OH)D concentrations increased from 90.8 to 121.3 nmol/L, HbA1c values decreased from 5.6% to 5.5%, and the prevalence of having HbA1c values ≥ 5.8% decreased from 29.5% to 17.4% while in the program. Compared to participants who did not increase their 25(OH)D concentrations during follow-up, those who increased their 25(OH)D concentrations with 50 nmol/L or more were 0.74 times as likely to achieve elevated HbA1c values at follow-up (p = 0.03). These findings suggest that public health initiatives that promote vitamin D status along with healthy lifestyles in the population at large may alleviate the future public health burden associated with T2D.
Keywords: diabetes; glycated hemoglobin; hemoglobin A1c; prevention; serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D; vitamin D.