In 3,195 US adults, meeting activity and sitting guidelines lined up with about twice the odds of vitamin D sufficiency

What the research found

A cross-sectional analysis was published on 9 November 2026. Sha Li, Jie Feng, and colleagues used 3,195 adults from NHANES 2021-2023 with complete data. Mean age was 49.1 years (standard deviation 17.1). 45.5 percent were men. Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D was measured by liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry. People reported physical activity, sedentary time, and sleep duration. More sedentary time lined up with lower vitamin D in the whole sample (beta = -0.006; 95 percent CI -0.012 to -0.001) and among men (beta = -0.008; -0.014 to -0.002), not among women. Longer sleep lined up with higher vitamin D among men only (beta = 0.023; 0.003 to 0.043). Meeting both physical-activity and sedentary-time guidelines had the largest association with vitamin D sufficiency: odds ratio 2.129 (1.504 to 3.012) overall, 2.013 (1.021 to 3.967) among men, and 2.214 (1.360 to 3.605) among women. One time point. It does not show that moving more raises vitamin D. DOI 10.1080/15502783.2026.2756025. Not medical advice.

Evidence level: Human study. A study in people, but an association isn't proof of cause.

Read the original at Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition