Association of Serum 25-Hydroxyvitamin D with Metabolic Syndrome Severity in Adults: A Tertiary Care Observational Study
Vitamin D and Metabolic Syndrome Severity
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.69750/dmls.03.02.0188Keywords:
Vitamin D, 25-hydroxyvitamin D, metabolic syndrome, insulin resistance, obesity, dyslipidemia, PakistanAbstract
Background: Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a significant challenge in the world health that is defined by a complex of metabolic dysfunctions, such as central obesity, dyslipidemia, hypertension, and poor glucose metabolism. The role of vitamin D in the pathogenesis of metabolic disorders has been recently discovered as a consequence of its action on insulin resistance and inflammation.
Objective: To evaluate the relationship between serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] concentrations and severity of metabolic syndrome in adults visiting a tertiary care hospital.
Methods: This cross-sectional observational study is done between June 2023 and June 2025 in the teaching hospital attached to Bakhtawar Amin Medical and Dental College, Multan. One hundred and thirty adults diagnosed with metabolic syndrome using the NCEP ATP III criteria were recruited. ELISA was used to determine the level of serum 25(OH)D and placed into the following classes: deficient, insufficient, and sufficient. The severity of metabolic syndrome was identified according to the number of diagnostic elements. Correlation and multivariate regression were used in the statistical analysis.
Results: Vitamin D deficiency was found in 62.3% of respondents. The levels of serum 25(OH)D were also significantly inversely correlated with the measures of waist circumference, fasting glucose, triglycerides, and insulin resistance (p<0.05). The more severe metabolic syndrome participants would have much lower vitamin D levels. Low vitamin D was found in the multivariate analysis to be an independent predictor of the severity of the disease.
Conclusion: Low levels of serum 25(OH)D are found to be a significant determinant of severity of metabolic syndrome. The clinical practice of early risk stratification may use a tool like vitamin D assessment.
Downloads
References
Steinmetz JD, Bourne RRA, Briant PS. Causes of blindness and vision impairment in 2020 and trends over 30 years and prevalence of avoidable blindness in relation to VISION 2020: The Right to Sight. Lancet Glob Health. 2021;9(2):e144-e160. doi:10.1016/S2214-109X(20)30489-7
Shah J, Cheong ZY, Tan B, Wong D, Liu X, Chua J. Dietary intake and diabetic retinopathy: A systematic review of the literature. Nutrients. 2022;14(23):5021. doi:10.3390/nu14235021
Yau JWY, Rogers SL, Kawasaki R, et al. Global prevalence and major risk factors of diabetic retinopathy. Diabetes Care. 2012;35(3):556-564. doi:10.2337/dc11-1909
Tan GS, Cheung N, Simó R, Cheung GCM, Wong TY. Diabetic macular oedema. Lancet Diabetes Endocrinol. 2017;5(2):143-155. doi:10.1016/S2213-8587(16)30052-3
Fekri S, Soheilian M, Roozdar S, Abtahi SH, Nouri H. The effect of vitamin D supplementation on the outcome of treatment with bevacizumab in diabetic macular edema: A randomized clinical trial. Int Ophthalmol. 2022;42(11):3345-3356. doi:10.1007/s10792-022-02333-2
Graue-Hernandez EO, Hernandez-Jimenez S, Aguilar-Salinas CA, Kershenobich-Stalnikowitz D, Jimenez-Corona A. Prevalence and associated risk factors of diabetic retinopathy and macular oedema in patients recently diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. BMJ Open Ophthalmol. 2020;5(1):e000304. doi:10.1136/bmjophth-2019-000304
Evert AB, Dennison M, Gardner CD, et al. Nutrition therapy for adults with diabetes or prediabetes: A consensus report. Diabetes Care. 2019;42(5):731-754. doi:10.2337/dci19-0014
Khater AA, Elmohamady MN, Badr TI, et al. Relation between vitamin D deficiency and diabetic maculopathy. Sci Rep. 2025;15(1):23922. doi:10.1038/s41598-025-08941-z
D’Angelo A, Lixi F, Vitiello L, Gagliardi V, Pellegrino A, Gianaccare G. The role of diet and oral supplementation for the management of diabetic retinopathy and diabetic macular edema: A narrative review. Biomed Res Int. 2025;2025:6654976. doi:10.1155/bmri/6654976
El-Khateeb M, Khader Y, Batieha A, et al. Vitamin D deficiency and associated factors in Jordan. SAGE Open Med. 2019;7:2050312119876151. doi:10.1177/2050312119876151
Lu L, Lu Q, Chen W, Li J, Li C, Zheng Z. Vitamin D3 protects against diabetic retinopathy by inhibiting high-glucose-induced activation of the ROS/TXNIP/NLRP3 inflammasome pathway. J Diabetes Res. 2018;2018:8193523. doi:10.1155/2018/8193523
Lazzara F, Longo AM, Giurdanella G, et al. Vitamin D3 preserves blood retinal barrier integrity in an in vitro model of diabetic retinopathy. Front Pharmacol. 2022;13:971164. doi:10.3389/fphar.2022.971164
Albert DM, Scheef EA, Wang S, et al. Calcitriol is a potent inhibitor of retinal neovascularization. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2007;48(5):2327-2334. doi:10.1167/iovs.06-1210
Ruamviboonsuk V, Grzybowski A. The roles of vitamins in diabetic retinopathy: A narrative review. J Clin Med. 2022;11(21):6490. doi:10.3390/jcm11216490
Ashinne B, Rajalakshmi R, Anjana RM, et al. Association of serum vitamin D levels and diabetic retinopathy in Asian Indians with type 2 diabetes. Diabetes Res Clin Pract. 2018;139:308-313. doi:10.1016/j.diabres.2018.02.040
Yuan J, Zhou JB, Zhao W, et al. Could vitamin D be associated with proliferative diabetic retinopathy? Evidence from pooling studies. Horm Metab Res. 2019;51(11):729-734. doi:10.1055/a-1010-6449
Zhang J, Upala S, Sanguankeo A. Relationship between vitamin D deficiency and diabetic retinopathy: A meta-analysis. Can J Ophthalmol. 2017;52(Suppl 1):S39-S44. doi:10.1016/j.jcjo.2017.09.026
Luo BA, Gao F, Qin LL. The association between vitamin D deficiency and diabetic retinopathy in type 2 diabetes: A meta-analysis of observational studies. Nutrients. 2017;9(3):307. doi:10.3390/nu9030307
Xiong R, Yuan Y, Zhu Z, et al. Micronutrients and diabetic retinopathy: Evidence from the national health and nutrition examination survey and a meta-analysis. Am J Ophthalmol. 2022;238:141-156. doi:10.1016/j.ajo.2022.01.005
Kim KL, Moon SY, Noh HM, Park SP, Kim YK. Serum and aqueous humor vitamin D levels in patients with diabetic macular edema. Graefes Arch Clin Exp Ophthalmol. 2019;257(6):1191-1198. doi:10.1007/s00417-019-04305-2
Karimi S, Movafaghi V, Arabi A, Shahraki T, Safi S. Effects of oral vitamin D supplement therapy on clinical outcomes of intravitreal bevacizumab in diabetic macular edema. J Ophthalmic Vis Res. 2021;16(1):34-41. doi:10.18502/jovr.v16i1.8249
Thomson KB, Khalid SI, Sabherwal N, Heiferman MJ. Association between tobacco smoking and the development of diabetic macular edema. J Vitreoretin Dis. 2024;8(6):651-657. doi:10.1177/24741264241269479
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
© The Author(s) 2026. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third-party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you must obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver ( http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ ) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.














