14/09/2026
Vitamin D deficiency was associated with the highest mortality risk when it occurred alongside abdominal obesity.
Researchers followed 5,520 adults aged 50+ for six years, grouping them by waist circumference and blood 25(OH)D. Compared with people who had both a normal waist and sufficient vitamin D, those with abdominal obesity and vitamin D deficiency had 2.23 times the risk of death.
The result is more nuanced than βlow vitamin D causes death.β Abdominal obesity increased risk even when vitamin D was sufficient, and low vitamin D was also associated with higher mortality in people without abdominal obesity. This was an observational study, so it cannot tell us whether vitamin D deficiency, abdominal fat, underlying illness, or some combination is driving the association.
Waist circumference provides information about abdominal adiposity that body weight alone can miss, while 25(OH)D tells you whether vitamin D status is actually low.
If your waist circumference is elevated, reducing abdominal fat through sustainable fat loss, regular physical activity, resistance training, and better diet quality addresses a well-established cardiometabolic risk factor. If vitamin D is genuinely deficient, it should also be identified and corrected for established clinical reasons. What this study does not show is that taking vitamin D supplements will erase the mortality risk associated with abdominal obesity.
da Silva Milliati J, et al. Diabetes Obes Metab. 2026;28(8):6607β6617. PMID: 42092233.
