Differences in Plasma 25-Hydroxyvitamin D Levels at Diagnosis of Celiac Disease and Type 1 Diabetes

Monica Marino; Tiziana Galeazzi; Rosaria Gesuita; Salima Ricci; Carlo Catassi; Valentino Cherubini; Elena Lionetti

doi:10.3390/nu16050743

Differences in Plasma 25-Hydroxyvitamin D Levels at Diagnosis of Celiac Disease and Type 1 Diabetes

Nutrients. 2024 Mar 5;16(5):743. doi: 10.3390/nu16050743.

Authors

Monica Marino¹, Tiziana Galeazzi², Rosaria Gesuita³, Salima Ricci⁴, Carlo Catassi⁴, Valentino Cherubini¹, Elena Lionetti⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Women's and Children's Health, G. Salesi Hospital, 60123 Ancona, Italy.
² Department of Pediatrics, Marche Polytechnic University, 60100 Ancona, Italy.
³ Center of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Polytechnic University of Marche, 60123 Ancona, Italy.
⁴ Department of Pediatrics, Women's and Children's Health, Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria Ospedali Riuniti Ancona, Marche Polytechnic University, 60121 Ancona, Italy.

Abstract

Aim: The aim of this work is to assess the vitamin D levels, evaluated as plasma 25-hydroxyvitamin D of children with a new diagnosis of celiac disease (CD), of children with a new onset of type 1 diabetes (T1D) and in children with CD at diagnosis of T1D (T1D&CD).

Methods: In this single-center observational study, we collected data for four groups of children and adolescents: T1D, CD, T1D&CD, and a control group (CG). The CG included schoolchildren who had negative results during a mass screening campaign for CD and were not diagnosed for T1D, according to RIDI Marche registry data, were considered for the purposes of this study. Plasma 25-hydroxyvitamin D, 25(OH)D₂, and 25(OH)D₃ were considered as the parameters for evaluating vitamin D nutritional status, and the date of measurement was recorded to analyze vitamin D level seasonality. Vitamin D nutritional status was categorized as follows: severe deficiency (<10 ng/mL), deficiency (<20 ng/mL), insufficiency (20-29 ng/mL), or sufficiency/adequacy (≥30 ng/mL). The Kruskal-Wallis test was used to compare the groups. The association of 25(OH)D levels with health conditions and seasonal differences of 25(OH)D levels was analyzed using a multiple linear regression model.

Results: The number of children enrolled for the present study was 393: 131 in the CG, 131 CD, 109 T1D, and 22 T1D&CD. Significantly lower levels of vitamin D were displayed for children with CD, T1D, or both the diseases. Interestingly, severe vitamin D deficiency was detected in no children with CD, 1.5% of children in the CG, in 24.4% with T1D, and 31.8% with T1D&CD (p < 0.001). As expected, the CG children vitamin D levels were significantly influenced by seasonality. Contrarily, no seasonal differences were reported in children with CD, T1D, and T1D&CD. Multiple regression analysis showed that children with T1D and T1D&CD had lower 25(OH)D levels of 9.9 ng/mL (95% CI: 5.4; 14.5) and 14.4 ng/mL (95% CI: 6.2-22.7) compared to CG children (p < 0.001).

Conclusions: Our results showed low levels of vitamin D diagnosis of T1D, CD, and T1D&CD; however, severe deficiency was only reported in children with T1D and T1D&CD. More studies are needed to better understand the role of this deficiency in children newly diagnosed with CD and T1D.

Keywords: celiac disease; type 1 diabetes; vitamin D status.

Publication types

Observational Study

MeSH terms

Adolescent
Calcifediol
Celiac Disease* / complications
Child
Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1*
Humans
Vitamin D / analogs & derivatives*
Vitamin D Deficiency*
Vitamins

Substances

25-hydroxyvitamin D
Vitamin D
Vitamins
Calcifediol

Grants and funding

This research received no external funding.