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Vitamin D levels linked to chronic, widespread pain in patients with fibromyalgia
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Low levels of serum vitamin D were associated positively with patients with fibromyalgia who had chronic, widespread pain, according to the results of a recently published meta-analysis.
Researchers used the electronic databases PubMed and Scopus to identify 12 studies that included eight with patients with a diagnosis of fibromyalgia and four studies with patients with chronic, widespread pain (CWP) based on criteria from the American College of Rheumatology (ACR). The studies comprised 1,854 patients and 7,850 reference participants, which included studies of participants without symptoms, one study which included patients with osteoarthritis (OA) and one study of patients with mechanical low back pain as the control populations. Six studies included women only and one study included men exclusively, and the mean ages in each study ranged from 32.3 years to 51.3 years.
Adjusted covariates, which varied by study, included gender, sunlight exposure, social status, smoking status, alcohol consumption, physical activity levels and the use of dietary supplements.
Random-effects meta-analysis was used to estimate the pooled OR for low vitamin D status.
Crude ORs of low vitamin D status in patients with fibromyalgia and CWP were extracted from nine studies which included 2,735 participants, including the control participants. Unadjusted analysis showed the patient cohort had a significantly higher OR (1.63) compared to the reference population. After adjustments for confounding variables, the association of low vitamin D with CWP had an OR of 1.41.
No significant differences were seen between patients with diagnosed fibromyalgia compared to undiagnosed patients with CWP, and no differences were seen between the asymptomatic reference population compared to the two reference populations with OA or mechanical low back pain. Crude ORs did not differ by gender. – by Shirley Pulawski
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
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