Effect of Intake of Vitamin D on Health Status in Human

Abstract

In this study, the effect of vitamin D consumption on the health status was examined through a survey involving 2,427 participants. To address potential biases and endogeneity concerns arising from the differences between individuals who consume vitamin D and those who do not, the propensity score matching method was employed. To assess the health status of the participants, a 10-point scale (−5 to 5) was employed, in which participants score their current status compared to that of one year ago. The results are as follows. The scores of individuals who consumed vitamin D and those who did not were 0.930 and 0.676, respectively, indicating this vitamin shows a significant effect (P < 0.01). Moreover, the analysis revealed that the effect of vitamin D was more pronounced in males (P < 0.01), individuals over 50 (P < 0.05), individuals residing in non-capital regions (P < 0.05), individuals with limited knowledge about health functional foods (P < 0.05), and individuals with vitamin D-related diseases (P < 0.01), compared to each of the respective counter parts. These findings suggest that intake of vitamin D has a beneficial effect on health particularly, on the health of men, older individuals, and those with vitamin D-related diseases.