Vitamin D insights

Keeping your Vitamin D levels up will help you stay as fit as possible during COVID.

Vitamin D Insights

What we've found

These insights are based on correlations which are statistical links between two sets of data. While we focus only on more plausible and interesting links, they should not be seen to imply cause or effect.
 

Are you supplementing?

We all need Vitamin D to help to keep bones, teeth and muscles healthy. Staying as fit as possible is really important during the current COVID-19 pandemic.

The current guidance in the UK on vitamin D is that we should all supplement with 400 IU (10μg) daily to prevent deficiency. Many clinicians agree that 1000 IU would be safe for the majority of people (babies up to 1 year may need a different dose).

The pie chart below shows that 68% of users surveyed told us that they aren’t taking any vitamin D supplements at all in spite of current UK guidance. The bar graph refers to those who ARE taking supplements. It shows the dose users take each day, with the majority of those taking the recommended 400 IU.

What factors are associated with vitamin D deficiency?

Certain factors are linked to vitamin D deficiency. We looked at answers to questions asked across our community in areas such as BMI, time spent outdoors, and diet.

In the graph below, the pink bars indicate a higher likelihood of vitamin D deficiency, whereas the green bars indicate a lower likelihood. As you can see, factors such as being obese, living in a more deprived area, having a heart disease diagnosis, or having ever reported COVID-19 symptoms are linked to an increased likelihood of being vitamin D deficient. Meanwhile, spending over 30 minutes outdoors per day, doing 30 or more minutes of exercise per week, and eating at least one portion of fruit per day are associated with an increased likelihood of not being deficient.

Find out more about vitamin D, supplementation and factors that make deficiency more likely here.

Vitamin D and Happiness

Vitamin D levels are linked to mood. Our users are more likely to report feeling happy (65%) if their vitamin D is at a good level. The graph below refers to our users who’ve had their vitamin D tested.

If you’re looking for more ways to increase your happiness, take a look at our 7 ways to feel happier.

Good vitamin D levels

Statistical disclaimers:

*Statistically significant at the 99% confidence level; †Statistically significant at the 95% confidence level; ‡Statistically significant at the 90% confidence level

Insights disclaimer:

Using information from over 20,000 Evergreen Life users, these figures are derived from multivariate Linear Probability Models (LPMs) (https://bit.ly/3aKaCeG), where we control for users’ gender, age and index of multiple deprivation (IMD). A “more deprived area” is defined as those users who live in the most deprived 30% of England and Wales, using the Index of Multiple Deprivation (https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/english-indices-of-deprivation-2019), for the users’ Lower-layer Super Output Area (LSOA) associated with their postcode (https://www.ons.gov.uk/methodology/geography/ukgeographies/censusgeography). Obese is defined as a BMI > 30 and Overweight is defined as 25< BMI <30 (https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/obesity/)

Trend line disclaimer:

These graphs use information provided by over 24,000 Evergreen Life users. Percentages are displayed with a 95% confidence interval.