The growing prevalence of vitamin D deficiency around the globe is a significant public health concern.
Based on the weight of evidence to date it is clear that vitamin D is important in lung disease.
In moving forward to address this problem it is important that we understand this association better in order to identify (1) the minimum (and maximum) vitamin D levels required for normal lung growth, development and immune function and (2) when to intervene if necessary.
To that end, we need a thorough understanding of the importance of vitamin D in determining the onset of disease, progression of disease and, in the case of asthma and COPD, the exacerbation of disease. To date the bulk of the studies have focused on associations between an individual’s current vitamin D and disease status which is not sufficient to adequately inform public health policy in order to ameliorate the vitamin D deficiency induced burden of respiratory disease in the community.