Low vitamin D is associated with infectious and non-infectious ocular diseases in Florida.

Abstract

Purpose : Vitamin D has an important role in immune systems. Association of hypovitaminosis D and
non-infectious inflammatory ocular diseases have been showed previously but this association was not
studied in inflammatory infectious ocular diseases and area with high sun exposure. Our aim is to
determine whether there is any association between vitamin D levels and infectious and non-infectious
ocular diseases in Florida.

Methods : In this retrospective study, 1468 patients (28.9% male) and 490 controls (27% male) were
recruited. Cases were diagnosed by an ophthalmologist with infectious (endophthalmitis, cellulitis,
keratitis, infectious uveitis) and non-infectious ocular inflammation (uveitis and scleritis) after exclusion
of neoplastic causes. Controls had no history of eye inflammation. They had recorded 25 hydroxy (OH)
vitamin D levels. Clinical and demographic data were collected from patients ‘s record. Logistic regression
models were created to examine the association between ocular inflammation and hypovitaminosis D
using Stata (college Station, TX). Age, gender, race, smoking, and history of systemic diseases were
included in multivariate model.

Results : Vitamin D levels means and standard deviations were 33 ± 12.7 and 28 ± 13.9 nanograms per
milliliter in controls and cases. The odds of having infectious and non-infectious ocular inflammation was
2.2 higher in patients with hypovitaminosis D compared to normal vitamin D level [(odds ratio (OR) =2.2,
95% Confidence Interval (CI) = 1.76-2.67, P= 1.8×10 -13 ). The association remained significant in
multivariate regression, after adjusting for age, gender, race and smoking (OR =2.7, 95%, CI = 2.19-3.44,
P= 8.17×10 -19 ). The odds of developing infectious and non-infectious inflammation was 3% lower for
every unit increase in vitamin D level (OR =0.97, 95%, CI = 0.97-0.98, P= 6.35×10 -9).

Conclusions : Low vitamin D is associated with increased risk of infectious and non-infectious ocular
inflammation in a large population in Florida in a retrospective study.

This is a 2021 ARVO Annual Meeting abstract.