Association of Vitamin D Level With Disease Severity and Quality of Life in Newly Diagnosed Patients of Ulcerative Colitis: A Cross-Sectional Analysis.

Introduction Ulcerative colitis is an immunologically mediated disorder affecting the gastrointestinal tract. Vitamin D3 has been shown to modulate many immunological diseases, but its role in ulcerative colitis is not well documented. This study was done to find out if levels of vitamin D are associated with the severity of disease and quality of life in ulcerative colitis patients. Methods This cross-sectional study consists of two parts. The first part consists of having a comparative assessment of baseline parameters of newly diagnosed ulcerative colitis patients and healthy controls. The 2nd part consists of an evaluation of the association of levels of vitamin D3 with disease severity and quality of life in ulcerative colitis. Independent predictors of disease severity and quality of life were assessed using multiple linear regression. Results Vitamin D levels were significantly lower in healthy controls compared to newly diagnosed ulcerative colitis patients. Median ulcerative colitis disease activity index score was significantly higher in the vitamin D deficient group compared with those who had normal vitamin D levels (p-0.001). Quality of life was also poor in the vitamin D deficient group compared to those with normal vitamin D levels (p-0.000). Vitamin D levels were found to be independent predictors of ulcerative colitis disease activity scores and health-related quality of life scores. Conclusion Vitamin D may have some immunomodulating properties, which might be associated with decreased ulcerative colitis disease activity index and better quality of life.