Negative Association between Serum Vitamin D Levels and Depression in a Young Adult US Population: A Cross-Sectional Study of NHANES 2007-2018

• Published in: Nutrients Vol. 15; no. 13; p. 2947
• Main Authors: Ma, Jiwen, Li, Ka
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 29.06.2023; MDPI
• Subjects: Adult; Alfacalcidol; American adults; Analysis; Biomarkers; Calcifediol; Calciferol; Cross-Sectional Studies; cross-sectional study; Curve fitting; depression; Depression - epidemiology; Family income; Gender; Health surveys; Hispanic people; Humans; Marital status; Mental depression; Mental disorders; Mental health; NHANES; Nutrition Surveys; Population studies; Psychological aspects; Questionnaires; serum vitamin D; Subgroups; Teenagers; United States - epidemiology; Vitamin D; Vitamin D Deficiency - epidemiology; Vitamin deficiency; Vitamins; Young Adult; Young adults; Youth; United States; United States > US; NHANES; cross-sectional study; American adults; depression; serum vitamin D
• ISSN: 2072-6643; 2072-6643
• DOI: 10.3390/nu15132947

Vitamin D has been suggested to play a role in the development of depression, but the nature of the relationship between the two is still not fully understood. Although some studies have shown an association between vitamin D deficiency and depression, others have yielded inconsistent or inconclusive results. As a result, further research is needed to better understand the relationship between vitamin D and depression. This study aims to assess the association between serum vitamin D and the risk of depressive symptoms in individuals aged 20 years and older in the United States. We selected 7562 participants from the 2007-2018 US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Participants' serum vitamin D levels were determined from laboratory data, and those with a Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) score of ≥ 10 were considered to have depressive symptoms. Associations between vitamin D and depressive symptoms were investigated using multiple logistic regression, subgroup analysis, and smoothed curve fitting. In our study, 11.17% of the participants had depression. Multiple regression stratified analysis showed a significant inverse association between serum vitamin D and depression in the 29-39 years age group after full adjustment (OR = 0.54, 95% CI: 0.31-0.95, = 0.0316). This result was supported by subgroup analysis and smoothed curve fitting. The association between serum vitamin D and depressive status in US adults varied across populations. Among those aged 29-39 years, vitamin D supplementation tended to show a lower rate of depression.