Association between Vitamin D Status and Asthma Course and Severity among Iraqi Children: Evaluating its Role as a Predictive Biomarker

Abstract

Childhood asthma is one of the significant health problems, beside vitamin D deficiency is currently the most common nutritional deficiency worldwide. Several studies assessed the association between  vitamin D and pathophysiology of many diseases. However, few studies on the national and international levels evaluate the utility of vitamin D as predictor of asthma severity and control. The present study aimed to assess the of performance of serum vitamin D level in prediction of asthma severity and its association with asthma control. Hence, a cross-sectional study was conducted during the between June 2024 to March 2026 included 118 Iraqi Asthmatic children aged 10-15 years and were proved diagnosed according to the  clinical criteria of Global Initiative of Asthma (GINA) guideline 2024. Asthma control was assessed using two validated tests; the Asthma control test (ACT) used for children aged 12-15 years and the child Asthma control test (c-ACT) used for children aged 10-11 years. Our findings showed that Hypovitaminosis D is frequent in asthmatic children aged 10-15 years, deficient/insufficient levels reported in more than half, 55.1% of the asthmatic child patients. Lower vitamin D level was significantly  associated with more severity of asthma and lower disease control. Vitamin D showed excellent performance in predicting asthma severity and it was strong predictor for asthma control. We recommended monitoring of serum vitamin D levels in asthmatic children as study participants of their management and follow-up plan. Normalizing vitamin D levels as part of therapeutic plan of asthmatic child  can improve disease control as well as help to control the vitamin D deficiency in general
Keywords: Bronchial Asthma, Severity, Control, , Vitamin D, Children