Vitamin D Supplementation for Treating Atopic Dermatitis in Children and Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Abstract

<h4>Background</h4>Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a chronic inflammatory skin disease affecting up to 20% of children and 10% of adults worldwide. Current research suggests a correlation between serum vitamin D level and AD severity and that vitamin D supplementation could have a potential therapeutic effect on AD.<h4>Objectives</h4>To conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis of studies of vitamin D supplementation for disease improvement in children and adults with AD.<h4>Methods</h4>PubMed, EMBASE, and Cochrane were searched from 19 April to 20 April 2024. We included randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of patients with AD comparing an intervention group with a control group. The risk of bias of the selected studies was assessed using the Cochrane risk-of-bias tool for randomized trials. All analyses were conducted in R (v4.1.2; R Core Team 2021).<h4>Results</h4>Eleven RCTs with 686 participants were included. The included trials had measured AD severity by using the SCOring Atopic Dermatitis (SCORAD) or the Eczema Area and Severity Index (EASI). Vitamin D supplementation significantly reduced AD severity compared with the control group (standardized mean difference = -0.41, 95% CI: -0.67 to -0.16, <i>I</i>² = 58%, <i>p</i> < 0.01).<h4>Conclusions</h4>Vitamin D supplementation reduces AD severity in children and adults. Larger-scale and longer-term studies are still needed to confirm this conclusion. This study has been registered on PROSPERO (CRD42024535014).