Vitamin D Deficiency Increases Risk of Dry Eye Disease

Identifying and addressing vitamin D deficiency could help manage and potentially prevent dry eye disease and lacrimal disorders, study suggests. Photo: CK Birla Hospital. Click image to enlarge. Researchers recently hypothesized that patients deficient in vitamin D, known for its vital role in immune regulation and maintaining ocular surface health, may have an increased risk of dry eye disease (DED). To investigate, they conducted a large retrospective cohort analysis using the TriNetX database and indeed observed a higher prevalence of DED among this population. The results were presented last week at ARVO in Salt Lake City.Electronic medical records from 17,710,249 patients across 67 healthcare institutions were included in the analysis. These individuals were divided into two groups: 5,348,657 patients with vitamin D deficiency and 12,361,592 without. Researchers focused on the incidence of lacrimal disorders and DED, identified through standardized ICD-10 coding. To ensure comparability between the two groups, propensity score matching was used, accounting for variables such as age, gender, race and the use of certain eye drops (glycerin, carboxymethylcellulose, propylethylene glycol and propylene glycol). After the matching was complete, 5,263,485 patients remained in each cohort.The findings revealed that patients deficient in vitamin D had a significantly higher incidence of DED and lacrimal disorders, both with statistically significant relative risks of approximately 1.3. These results support the initial hypothesis that vitamin D deficiency is associated with a higher likelihood of developing these ocular conditions.Based on these findings, the researchers wrote in their ARVO abstract that “identifying and addressing vitamin D deficiency could lead to appropriately managing and potentially preventing dry eye syndrome.” They added, “Further research is encouraged to uncover the underlying mechanisms and evaluate the effectiveness of vitamin D supplementation in mitigating ocular surface diseases.”Original abstract content ©2025 Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology. Beauchamp BC, Shmushkevich S, Kane J, Bajrami S, Parekh P. The influence of vitamin D deficiency in the development of dry eye disease. ARVO 2025 annual meeting.