Covid-19 and vit-d: Disease mortality negatively correlates with sunlight exposure. (November 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Lansiaux, Édouard; Pébaÿ, Philippe P.; Picard, Jean-Laurent; Forget, Joachim
• Is Part Of: Spatial and spatio-temporal epidemiology. Volume 35(2020)
• Publication Date: 2020-11
• Subjects: COVID-19 -- Coronavirus -- France -- Correlation -- Vitamin D -- Phototherapy -- UV; Epidemiology -- Statistical methods -- Periodicals; Epidemiology -- Periodicals; 614.4072
• DOI: 10.1016/j.sste.2020.100362
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1877-5845

Abstract

Abstract: The novel COVID-19 disease is a contagious acute respiratory infectious disease whose causative agent has been demonstrated to be a new virus of the coronavirus family, SARS-CoV-2. Alike with other coronaviruses, some studies show a COVID-19 neurotropism, inducing de-myelination lesions as encountered in Guillain-Barré syndrome. In particular, an Italian report concluded that there is a significant vitamin D deficiency in COVID-19 infected patients. In the current study, we applied a Pearson correlation test to public health as well as weather data, in order to assess the linear relationship between COVID-19 mortality rate and the sunlight exposure. For instance in continental metropolitan France, average annual sunlight hours are significantly (for a p-value of 1.532 × 10 −32 ) correlated to the COVID-19 mortality rate, with a Pearson coefficient of -0.636. This correlation hints at a protective effect of sunlight exposure against COVID-19 mortality. This paper is proposed to foster academic discussion and its hypotheses and conclusions need to be confirmed by further research.