Comparative Analysis of Serum Vitamin D Levels in Newly Diagnosed Tuberculosis Patients versus Healthy Individuals

Vitamin D deficiency has been implicated in the susceptibility to tuberculosis due to its crucial role in immune regulation and host defense mechanisms. Objectives: To compare serum Vitamin D levels between newly diagnosed TB patients and healthy individuals and assess their association with the nutritional-inflammatory profile. Methods: This comparative cross-sectional study was conducted over 1 year from Dec 2021 to Dec 2022. A total of 224 participants, comprising 112 newly diagnosed tuberculosis patients as cases and 112 healthy individuals as controls, were recruited. Cases included patients aged over 18 years with confirmed tuberculosis diagnosis GeneXpert MTB/RIF assay. Controls were individuals without tuberculosis symptoms and with serum vitamin D levels available. Results: Vitamin D levels were found to be lesser in TB patients with median levels of 14.35 ng/mL (interquartile range (IQR): 8.65–25.48) versus 19.08 ng/mL (IQR: 13.92–26.17; p=0.029) in normal people. A higher proportion of TB patients exhibited severe deficiency (<10 ng/mL) at 35.7% compared to 13.4% in controls (p=0.002). Similarly, deficiency (10–20 ng/mL) was more prevalent among tuberculosis patients (42.9%) than controls (26.8%). Vitamin D levels in tuberculosis patients had a positive correlation with BMI and albumin levels. Conclusions: It was concluded that tuberculosis patients exhibited poorer nutritional status, with lower BMI, albumin, hemoglobin, and Vitamin D levels compared to healthy controls with a significantly higher proportion of tuberculosis patients having severe Vitamin D deficiency.