Vitamin D insufficiency and frailty syndrome in older adults living in a Northern Taiwan community

Low 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels and the risk of frailty syndrome: a systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis

“…The definitions for frailty used in the included studies were different (i.e., Fried phenotype, modified phenotype, nine frailty indications, and frailty index), thus affecting our pooled analysis, although subgroup analysis was performed according to definitions of frailty. Because several eligible studies did not provide sufficient information for a dose-response analysis of 25OHD levels, the number of participants, cases, and logarithms of RRs and corresponding standard errors, we excluded the potential related studies [19, 45–49], which may introduce a potential selection bias in our analysis. Unlike those observed for prospective cohort studies, the results from cross-sectional studies were somewhat heterogeneous but consistently pointed to an inverse relationship despite the observation that the strength of the association differed substantially across studies.…”

Vitamin D and Skeletal Muscle Function

“…A longitudinal study of community-dwelling older Japanese women with impairments in physical function at baseline, reported that higher baseline 25(OH)D levels (defined as >67.5 nmol/l) were associated with improvements in physical fitness after 3 months on an exercise program [37]. A cross-sectional study of a North Taiwanese elderly community showed a similar result with vitamin D insufficiency and measures of frailty [38].…”

Brain injury in seniors in British Columbia: Its relationship to depression and chronic pain.

“…Rucker et al (2002) reported that increased age was associated with lower vitamin D levels, and Bischoff-Ferrari et al (2004) found that 90% of elderly women from an institutionalized population were vitamin D deficient. Low vitamin D levels in the elderly may be due to fewer outdoor activities, as well as the fact that seniors synthesize less vitamin D in the skin when exposed to light (Chang et al, 2010). Low vitamin D levels are associated with an increased risk of developing frailty as well as frailty itself (Topinkova, 2008).…”

“…Frailty is a progressive age-related syndrome including factors predisposing seniors to TBI (Chang, Chan, Kuo, Hsuing & Chen, 2010). While there are many definitions of frailty, all include the idea that multiple systems or pathologies are involved (Topinkova, 2008).…”

“…Frailty not only has been seen to increase the risk of falls itself, but also to increase the risk of comorbidities seen within this model that act to increase the risk of falls, such as medical disorders like hypertension (Ahmed, TBI in the Elderly 71 Mandel & Fain, 2007). In recent studies, researchers pinpointed a large dose-dependent relationship between vitamin D deficiencies and both frailty and pre-frailty in the elderly, possibly due to decreased musculoskeletal function (Chang et al, 2010;Topinkova, 2008).…”