Vitamin D Deficiency and Incident Onset of Orthostatic Hypotension in Older Adults: Preliminary Results from the ‘MERE’ Study

Hypovitaminosis D and orthostatic hypotension

“…After excluding 297 studies through title and abstract review, 20 full text articles were examined leading to seven studies finally retained. Five cross-sectional studies were meta-analyzed, whereas one longitudinal study was included in the descriptive analysis (Supplementary Figure 1, http://links.lww.com/HJH/A599) [19][20][21][22][23][24].…”

“…Finally, as observational crosssectional study design prevents causal inference, a reverse causation is also possible, that is, orthostatic hypotension causes gait disorders and loss of independence with subsequent reduced sun exposure and hypovitaminosis D as a result. However, the latter hypothesis appears less likely as a previous longitudinal prospective study reported the time sequence of events; specifically that hypovitaminosis D precedes the onset of orthostatic hypotension in older adults [19]. Clearly future research is required to further elucidate explanatory models of vitamin D and orthostatic hypotension.…”

“…Only one prospective study was available about the association between hypovitaminosis D and the onset of orthostatic hypotension showing that baseline hypovitaminosis D increased the risk of having orthostatic hypotension at follow-up of about 18 times over 12 months of follow-up [19].…”

Hypovitaminosis D predicts the onset of orthostatic hypotension in older adults

“…12 To the best of our knowledge, only one study has prospectively assessed the association between hypovitaminosis D and OH. 14 The authors found that hypovitaminosis D predicts the onset of OH at follow-up, but had various limitations, in particular the small sample size (n=51) and the short follow-up (1 year) which limits the conclusions of these findings. 14 We therefore aimed to investigate the association between hypovitaminosis D and the onset of OH in a large representative cohort of older men and women over a mean follow-up of 4.4 years.…”

“…14 The authors found that hypovitaminosis D predicts the onset of OH at follow-up, but had various limitations, in particular the small sample size (n=51) and the short follow-up (1 year) which limits the conclusions of these findings. 14 We therefore aimed to investigate the association between hypovitaminosis D and the onset of OH in a large representative cohort of older men and women over a mean follow-up of 4.4 years. We hypothesized that low serum 25OHD would predict the onset of OH at the follow-up.…”