Vitamin D intake and risks of systemic lupus erythematosus and rheumatoid arthritis in women

Karen H Costenbader ^1*, Diane Feskanich ², Elizabeth Benito-Garcia ³, Michelle Holmes ⁴ and Elizabeth Karlson ⁵

¹ Brigham and Women's Hospital; Assistant Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, United States
² Channing laboratory, Brigham and Women's Hospital, United States
³ BioEpi Research Center, Oeiras, Portugal
⁴ Channing Laboratory, Brigham and Women's Hospital, United States
⁵ Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, United States

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: kcostenbader{at}partners.org.

Accepted 27 July 2007

Abstract

Objectives: Vitamin D has immune-modulating effects and may protect against the development of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) and Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA).

Methods: We identified incident cases of SLE and RA among 186,389 women followed from 1980-2002 in the Nurses’ Health Study and Nurses’ Health Study II cohorts. We excluded subjects with non-confirmed SLE or RA by medical record review, and those who failed to return questionnaires. Semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaires assessed vitamin D intake from food and supplements. We used cumulative-updated total energy-adjusted dietary exposures for each two year cycle. Relationships between vitamin D intake and incident SLE and RA were examined in age-adjusted and Cox proportional hazards models, adjusted for confounders. Results were pooled using meta-analysis random effects models.

Results: We confirmed 190 incident cases of SLE and 722 of RA with dietary information. Increasing levels of vitamin D intake had no relationship to the relative risk of developing either SLE or RA.

Conclusions: Vitamin D was not associated with risk of SLE or RA in these large prospective cohorts of women.

Keywords: epidemiology, rheumatoid arthritis, risk factor, systemic lupus erythematosus, vitamin D

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