Association between vitamin D deficiency at one month of age and bronchopulmonary dysplasia

Vitamin D deficiency is common and increases the likelihood of neonatal morbidities in preterm infants. This study assessed vitamin D levels at 1 month of age after 4 weeks of vitamin D supplementation and determined the association between vitamin D levels and neonatal morbidities. This retrospective study included preterm infants with birth weight <1500 g or gestational age <32 weeks born in our hospital between January 2018 and December 2019. They were administered 400 IU of oral vitamin D supplementation after birth according to our policy. The infants were then divided into sufficient (≥20 ng/mL) and deficient (<20 ng/mL) groups according to their serum vitamin D levels at 1 month of age. The vitamin D deficient and sufficient groups included 49 and 41 patients, respectively. The mean gestational age and birth weight. GHT in the vitamin D deficient group were 29.1 ± 2.1 weeks and 1216.1 ± 308.1 g, respectively, and 30.0 ± 1.7 weeks and 1387.6 ± 350.8 g, respectively, in the sufficient group. No significant differences were observed between the 2 groups in demographic and clinical outcomes except for bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), which occurred significantly more often in the vitamin D-deficient group (odds ratio 2.21; 95% confidence interval, 1.85–2.78; P = .02). The results of our study suggest that vitamin D deficiency at 1 month of age is associated with BPD in preterm infants.