FRIDAY, June 7, 2019 (HealthDay News) — For individuals with prediabetes, vitamin D3 supplementation does not result in a significantly lower risk for type 2 diabetes than placebo, according to a study published online June 7 in the New England Journal of Medicine to coincide with the annual meeting of the American Diabetes Association, held from June 7 to 11 in San Francisco.

Anastassios G. Pittas, M.D., from Tufts Medical Center in Boston, and colleagues randomly assigned adults who met at least two of three glycemic criteria for prediabetes and no diagnostic criteria for diabetes to receive 4,000 IU per day of vitamin D3 or placebo. A total of 2,423 participants were randomly assigned: 1,211 to vitamin D and 1,212 to placebo.

The researchers found that the mean serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels were 54.3 ng/mL and 28.8 ng/mL in the vitamin D and placebo groups, respectively, by month 24. The primary outcome of diabetes occurred in 293 and 323 participants in the vitamin D and placebo groups (9.39 and 10.66 events per 100 person-years, respectively). For vitamin D versus placebo, the hazard ratio was 0.88 (95 percent confidence interval, 0.75 to 1.04; P = 0.12). There was no significant difference in incidence of adverse events between the groups.

“Any benefit of vitamin D for diabetes prevention, if present, is modest and clearly does not pertain to a vitamin D-sufficient population,” write the authors of an accompanying editorial.

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