The association of HIV status with bacterial vaginosis and vitamin D in the United States.

French AL, Adeyemi OM, Agniel DM, Evans CT, Yin MT, Anastos K, Cohen MH. The association of HIV status with bacterial vaginosis and vitamin D in the United States. Journal of women's health (2002). 2011 Oct 1; 20(10):1497-503.

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Abstract:

OBJECTIVE: To estimate the association between vitamin D deficiency and bacterial vaginosis (BV) among nonpregnant HIV-infected and uninfected women. METHODS: In a substudy of the Women''s Interagency HIV Study, including women from Chicago and New York, the association between BV and vitamin D deficiency, demographics, and disease characteristics was tested using generalized estimating equations. Deficiency was defined as < 20 ng/mL 25 (OH) vitamin D and insufficiency as > 20 and = 30 ng/mL. BV was defined by the Amsel criteria. RESULTS: Among 602 observations of nonpregnant women (480 HIV infected and 122 uninfected), BV was found in 19%. Vitamin D deficiency was found in 59.4%, and insufficiency was found in 24.4%. In multivariable analysis, black race was the most significant predictor of BV (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] 5.90, (95% confidence interval [CI] 2.52-13.8). Vitamin D deficiency was independently associated with BV among HIV-infected women (AOR 3.12, 95% CI 1.16-8.38) but not among HIV-uninfected women. There was a negative linear correlation between vitamin D concentration and prevalence of BV in HIV-infected women (r = -0.15, p = 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Vitamin D deficiency was very common in this cohort and significantly associated with BV among HIV-infected women. These preliminary findings suggest that further epidemiologic and mechanistic exploration of the relationship between vitamin D and BV in HIV-infected women is warranted.