Vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency are highly prevalent worldwide and thought to
potentiate a variety of chronic disease states, including diabetes, cancer, and depression.
Routine vitamin D supplementation is often needed to meet vitamin D requirements.
Little is known regarding the effect of vitamin D supplementation on quality of life. The
purpose of this article was to systematically review the literature regarding quality-oflife
outcomes from vitamin D supplementation in healthy and clinical populations.
Clinical trials of vitamin D supplementation, where quality-of-life outcomes were reported,
were selected from Medline and Web of Science databases. Inclusion criteria
were English language articles available online (published between 1950 and May
2014), primary research articles, studies conducted on human beings, and treatment/
supplementation with vitamin D. Articles were excluded if they involved topical vitamin
D application or implicit cotreatment with other vitamins (eg, multivitamins). Articles
selected for review were examined for process and methodologic quality using validated
methodologies. A total of 15 articles met the inclusion criteria for review.
Interventions were highly variable in terms of study population (eg, healthy/diseased,
children/elderly, and baseline vitamin D status) vitamin D dose, and duration of followup.
Vitamin D supplementation ranged from 400 IU/day for an average of 7.1 years, to a
single 300, 000 IU dose. The main tools used to capture quality of life were adaptations
of validated, questionnaires (Medical Outcomes Study Short Form 36-item questionnaire
and EuroQOL five dimension questionnaire). Vitamin D supplementation was not
associated with significant changes in quality of life. Studies that reported changes in
quality of life as a result of vitamin D supplementation were in clinical populations on
short-term vitamin D. Most articles reviewed displayed poor methodologic quality
(eg, no randomization/blinding, dropout description, or vitamin D assessment). Current
evidence indicates that vitamin D supplementation may have a small to moderate effect
on quality of life when used on a short-term basis in diseased populations. However, the
evidence for a beneficial effect of long-term vitamin D supplementation on healthrelated
quality of life is lacking.