Hypovitaminosis D among Athletes and Its Impact on Athletic Performance: Protocol for a Scoping Review

Varying evidence shows a surge in the prevalence of insufficient serum Vitamin D levels among athletes. Further exploration is incumbent to identify the influence of Vitamin D on athletic performance and various factors such as recovery from musculoskeletal pain and fatigue, improving muscle strength, reducing frequency and duration of illness, and lowering the production of pro-inflammatory markers. This systematic scoping review will identify the rate of occurrence of lower levels of Vitamin D and analyze if it impacts athletic performance. The methodology prescribed by Arksey and O’Malley and the methodological advancement by Levac will be followed. The authors will search electronic databases PubMed, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Embase (through Cochrane), Ovid Emcare, and Google Scholar for original research and will include studies published in English between 1981 and 2021. Two reviewers will screen the title and abstracts of the identified literature, and the studies that meet the inclusion criteria will be moved to full text screening. The same reviewers will screen the full text of the selected literature and studies that meet the inclusion criteria will be used for data extraction. Extracted data will be reported as a comprehensive summary. The final manuscript is intended for submission to an indexed journal in January 2023. The scoping review will help to address the prevalence of hypovitaminosis D and combine evidence on its impact on performance among athletes. This scoping review was registered with Open Science Framework.