Searchable abstracts of presentations at key conferences in endocrinology
Endocrine Abstracts (2013) 31 P202 | DOI: 10.1530/endoabs.31.P202

SFEBES2013 Poster Presentations Obesity, diabetes, metabolism and cardiovascular (67 abstracts)

Vitamin D and insulin resistance: no association in healthy overweight people at high risk of cardiovascular disease

Ian Wallace 1, , Claire McEvoy 2 , Lesley Hamill 2 , Cieran Ennis 1, , Patrick Bell 1 , Steven Hunter 1 , Jayne Woodside 2 , Ian Young 2 & Michelle McKinley 2


1Regional Centre For Endocrinology and Diabetes, Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast, UK; 2Nutrition and Metabolism Group, Centre for Public Health, Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast, UK.


Observational studies suggest reduced vitamin D levels are associated with an increased incidence of type 2 diabetes mellitus. We examined the relationship with insulin resistance (assessed using a two-step euglycaemic hyperinsulinaemic clamp technique) in 92 overweight, non-diabetic individuals with no history of cardiovascular disease - mean age 56 years (range 40–77 years), 64% males, 36% females, BMI 30.9 kg/m2 (range 26.4–36.9 kg/m2), fasting plasma glucose 5.8 mmol/l (range 4.9–7.0 mg/dl).

Vitamin D was measured using an ultra performance liquid chromatography technique (UPLC) with tandem mass spectrometry. Statistical analysis was performed using Pearson’s correlation coefficients and partial correlation.

Geometric mean total vitamin D for the whole group was 32.2 pg/ml. Thirty-three per-cent were deficient (<25 pg/ml), 47% insufficient (26–50 pg/ml), 20% adequate (>50 pg/ml). Geometric mean assessments of insulin resistance were Step one GIR 6.64 μmol/kg per min, Step two GIR 34.70 μmol/kg per min and HOMA-IR 1.83. Pearson’s correlation coefficients for vitamin D and GIR step one are −0.003 (P=0.98), GIR step two −0.036 (P=0.73) and HOMA-IR −0.163 (P=0.13). Partial correlation analysis did not detect any significant correlations after correction for potential anthropometric, seasonal or gender confounders. Further subgroup analysis of the deficient group did not detect any significant correlations.

Previous studies have assessed insulin resistance using HOMA-IR and have produced inconsistent results. Using gold standard techniques we did not detect any relationship between vitamin D and measures of whole-body, peripheral or hepatic insulin resistance in this group of overweight healthy individuals at high risk of cardiovascular disease.

Declaration of funding: Food Standards Agency (UK Department of Health) N02042, Irish Endocrine Society (Lilly Bursary, 2010).

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