The Association of Vitamin D Deficiency, Age and Depression in US Adults: A Cross-Sectional Analysis

Abstract

Background Depression is an important public health burden, vitamin D deficiency is associated with mood disorders. The risk of depression may increase with increasing age. Serum vitamin D levels and age are closely related. Objective This study is to investigate the association between vitamin D deficiency, age, and depression in a representative sample of US adults and the combined effect of vitamin D deficiency and aging on depression. Materials and Methods We extracted data from NHANES 2013–2018, including demographic characteristics, depression level, vitamin D level, physical activity, and body measures. Depression was screened by PHQ-9. Vitamin D was measured using the CDC method (test principle utilizing high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry to quantify 25OHD3, epi-25OHD3 and 25OHD2 in human serum). We performed binary logistic regression models to analyze the association between vitamin D, age and depression, respectively. Results A total of 15156 adults aged 20 years or older (mean age 49.81 ± 17.67 years, 7301 males and 7855 females) were included. Vitamin D levels were negatively associated with depression (P < 0.001). Vitamin D had a significant effect on depression (OR = 0.776, 95%Cl: 0.682–0.884, P < 0.001), the effect remained significant after adjusted for confounding variables (OR = 0.761, 95%Cl: 0.663–0.874, P < 0.001). Age was positively associated with depression (P < 0.001) and had a significant effect on depression (OR = 1.079, 95%Cl: 1.032–1.128, P = 0.001), the effect remained significant after adjusted for confounding variables (OR = 1.085, 95%Cl: 1.034–1.138, P = 0.001). Age and vitamin D levels were positively correlated (P < 0.001), and aging had a significant effect on vitamin D level (OR = 1.526, 95%Cl: 1.416–1.645, P < 0.001), the effect remained significant after adjusted for confounding variables (OR = 1.371, 95%Cl: 1.263–1.487, P < 0.001). In addition, the detection rate of depression was higher in females (2312/7855, 29.43%) than in males (1571/7301, 21.52%), and the difference was statistically significant (P < 0.001). Conclusions Vitamin D deficiency is a risk factor for depression; aging is a protective factor for vitamin D deficiency; Vitamin D and age synergetically affect the incident risk of depression: younger populations are more likely to present an increased risk of depression due to vitamin D deficiency; elderly females who are unmarried and living alone are the highest risk group for depression.

Relationships among Vitamin D Insufficiency, Health belief, Quality of Life and Metabolic Syndrome in Northeastern Taiwanese Adults: A Cross-sectional Community-based Cohort Study

“…The VDI is associated with several components of MetS [10]. The inverse correlation between Vitamin D concentration and the development of MetS could be explained by the dependence of insulin production in pancreatic β cells on Vitamin D and its receptor interaction [11], obesity resulting in more sequestration of vitamin D in adipose tissue, and greater volumetric dilution of serum 25(OH)D level, less sun exposure, poor dietary habits, and varied genetic expression of enzymes involving vitamin D metabolism [17,42]. Although the mean 25(OH)D concentration was 29.59 ± 10.80 ng/mL, 54.9% of the participants with VDI and 43.9% of them with MetS in the present cohort, there was no statistical difference in the incidences of MetS and its related components between the VDI and the su ciency group.…”

Effects of Different Intensity of Work Physical Activity on Sleep Disorder in Patients with Cholesterol

“…In this study, the poverty ratio is divided into two types: poverty (<1.3) and middle-income (≥ 1.3). (11,12)…”