The Relationship Between Vitamin D and Activity of Daily Living in the Elderly

Objective: To analyze the association between vitamin D and the performance of activity of daily living in the elderly.

Methods: A total of 94 patients over the age of 65 were eligible to participate if they had undergone a bone mineral density test and if they were in a stable health condition. Subjects were further divided into two groups according to activity of daily living (ADL): the score over 40 of the patients as the high ADL group and the below as the low ADL group.

Results: According to univariate analysis, the mean of total hip T score, serum creatinine/cystatin C ratio (CCR), and vitamin D were significantly different between the two groups (P=0.024, 0.008, 0.010). Multivariate ORs showed that the CCR (OR: 0.948; 95%CI: 0.910-0.989; P=0.013) and vitamin D (OR: 865; 95%CI: 0.752-0.994; P=0.047) were inversely associated with having low ADL. Furthermore, on multiple linear regression analysis, the Barthel ADL index was related to geriatric nutritional risk index (GNRI), CCR and vitamin D but independent of patients' age with the slope of 0.732, 0.539, and 0.689 separately, reflected the stronger relative within the variables.

Conclusion: We demonstrated that there is a negative correlation of CCR and vitamin D with having low ADL in elderly population. Monitoring the trend of serum vitamin D and CCR, may have a role in the early detection of low ADL with loss of muscle mass and strength in the population of the elderly.