Vitamin D and Suicidality: a Chinese Early Adolescent Cohort and Mendelian Randomization Study

Aims: Previous cross-sectional and case-control studies have proposed that decreased vitamin D levels are positively correlated with the risk of suicidality in adults. However, limited studies have examined the association between vitamin D and suicidality in adolescents. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between serum vitamin D and suicidality risk among early adolescents.

Methods: Data were obtained from a Chinese early adolescent cohort. In this cohort, seventh-grade students from a middle school in Anhui Province were invited to voluntarily participate in the baseline assessments and provide peripheral blood samples (in September 2019). The participants were followed up annually (in September 2020 and September 2021). Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] and vitamin D-related single-nucleotide polymorphisms at baseline were measured in November 2021. Traditional observational and Mendelian randomization (MR) analyses were performed to examine the relationship between serum 25(OH)D at baseline and the risk of baseline and incident suicidality (i.e., suicidal ideation [SI], plans and attempts).

Results: Traditional observational analysis did not reveal a significant linear or non-linear association of serum 25(OH)D concentration with the risks of baseline and 2-year incident suicidality in the total sample ( > .05 for all). Sex-stratified analysis revealed a non-linear association between the 25(OH)D concentration and the risk of baseline SI in women ( = .002;  = .001). Moreover, the risk of baseline SI in the 25(OH) insufficiency group was lower than that in the 25(OH) deficiency group in the total sample (odds ratio [OR] = 0.69, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.51-0.92,  = .012). This difference remained significant in women (OR = 0.59, 95% CI = 0.40-0.87,  .008) but not in men (OR = 0.78, 95% CI = 0.53-1.15,  .205). Additionally, both linear and non-linear MR analyses did not support the causal effect of serum 25(OH)D concentration on the risk of baseline, 1-year and 2-year incident suicidality ( > .05 for all).

Conclusions: This study could not confirm the causal effect of vitamin D on suicidality risk among Chinese early adolescents. Future studies must confirm these findings with a large sample size.