Vitamin D deficiency associated with Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis: a meta-analysis of 55 observational studies

PURPOSE: To investigate the association of serum levels of 25(OH)D and 1,25(OH)(2)D(3) in healthy and non-healthy controls with Crohn’s disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC). METHODS: Three electronic databases: PubMed, EMbase and EBSCOhost CINAHL, were searched for observational studies to measure the relationship between serum levels of vitamin D (VitD) and CD (or UC). RESULTS: Fifty-five studies were included in the meta-analysis. We found that mean serum 25(OH)D levels in patients with CD were significantly lower than those in healthy controls (MD: − 3.17 ng/mL; 95% CI − 4.42 to − 1.93). Results from the meta-analysis examining 1,25(OH)(2)D(3) levels in Crohn’s patients revealed higher levels in the CD group than in healthy (MD: 3.47 pg/mL; 95% CI − 7.72 to 14.66) and UC group (MD: 5.05 pg/mL; 95% CI − 2.42 to 12.52). Serum 25(OH)D levels were lower in the UC group than in the healthy control group (MD: − 2.52 ng/mL; 95% CI − 4.02 to − 1.02). In studies investigating the level of 1,25(OH)(2)D(3) in UC and healthy control groups, the level of 1,25(OH)(2)D(3) in the UC groups were found to be higher than that in the control groups (MD: 3.76 pg/mL; 95% CI − 8.36 to 15.57). However, the 1,25(OH)(2)D(3) level in patients with UC was lower than that in CD groups (MD: − 6.71 pg/mL; 95% CI − 15.30 to 1.88). No significant difference was noted between CD patients and UC patients in terms of average serum 25(OH)D levels. CONCLUSIONS: This study found that VitD levels were inversely related to CD and UC. Serum levels of 25(OH)D were lower in patients with CD and UC than in healthy people, and more than half of the patients had insufficient vitamin D levels. The serum level of 1,25(OH)(2)D(3) in both the CD and UC groups was higher than that in healthy people.