The Effect of Vitamin D and Calcium on Cognitive Function and Depression in the Elderly Living in a City

Yu-Jin Lee; Yun-Su Kim

doi:10.12799/jkachn.2017.28.3.251

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Lee and Kim: The Effect of Vitamin D and Calcium on Cognitive Function and Depression in the Elderly Living in a City

Original Article

J Korean Acad Community Health Nurs 2017;28(3):251-259.

Published online: 12 September 2017

DOI: https://doi.org/10.12799/jkachn.2017.28.3.251

The Effect of Vitamin D and Calcium on Cognitive Function and Depression in the Elderly Living in a City

Yu-Jin Lee¹, Yun-Su Kim²

¹Department of Nursing, Dongnam Health University, Suwon, Korea

²Promotion Support Team, ‘Outreach Community Service Center’ Project in Seoul, Seoul, Korea

Corresponding author: Lee, Yu-Jin Department of Nursing, Dongnam Health University, 50 Cheoncheon-ro, 74-gil, Jangan-gu, Suwon 16328, Korea. Tel: +82-31-249-6695, Fax: +82-31-249-6480, E-mail: lyj15@dongnam.ac.kr

Received 1 May 2017 Revised 11 July 2017 Accepted 11 July 2017

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0), which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to examine the influence of vitamin D and calcium on depression and cognitive function of the elderly living alone in a city.

Methods

The participants were registered in eight senior centers in S city and they had lived alone. Data were collected between November 28, 2014 and March 7, 2015. A total of 155 people participated in data collection to measure the serum vitamin D, the serum calcium, depression, and cognitive function. The data were analyzed with t-test, ANOVA, Pearson's correlation and multiple regression analysis.

Results

There were significant differences in depression according to gender and perceptions of health status. Depression correlated significantly with the serum calcium and perceptions of health status, and a stepwise regression analysis showed that the perceptions of health status were significant. There were significant differences in cognitive function according to education level and age. Cognitive function correlated significantly with the serum vitamin D and a stepwise regression analysis showed that education level and age were significant.

Conclusion

Consequently, elderly people with poor perceptions of their health status need a depressive intervention program and those with a higher age and lower level of education need a cognitive function intervention program.

Keywords: Vitamin D, Calcium, Aged, Depression, Cognitive function

References

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Table 1.

Characteristics, Vitamin D, Calcium, Depression, Cognitive Function of the Study Population (N=155)

Characteristics	Categories	n (%) or M±SD
Age (year)	≤69	15 (9.7)
	70~79	90 (58.1)
	≥80	50 (32.2)
		76.9±5.90
Gender	Male	33 (21.3)
Gender	Female	122 (78.7)
Education	Illiteracy	61 (39.4)
	Elementary school	61 (39.4)
	Middle school	21 (13.5)
	High school	11 (7.1)
	≥College	1 (0.6)
Religion	Christianity	25 (16.1)
	Catholic	37 (23.9)
	Buddhism	41 (26.5)
	No religion	52 (33.5)
Alcohol use	Yes	38 (24.5)
Alcohol use	No	117 (75.5)
Smoking	Yes	10 (6.5)
Smoking	No	145 (93.5)
Perceptions of health status	Not very healthy	3 (1.9)
	Not healthy	80 (51.6)
	Moderate	55 (35.5)
	Healthy	17 (11.0)
Outdoor activity time (min/day)	＜60	67 (43.2)
	60~＜180	64 (41.3)
	180~＜300	20 (12.9)
	≥300	4 (2.6)
		79.87±74.55
Vitamin D		18.88±9.24
Calcium		9.25±0.38
GDSSF-K^†		5.59±3.97
MMSE-K^‡		23.88±3.60

^† GDSSF-K: Geriatric depression scale short form-Korean version (0~4: normal, 5~9: mild depression, 10~15: severe depression);

^‡ MMSE-K: Mini-mental state examination- Korean version (High score: Good cognitive function).

Table 2.

Depression, Cognitive Function by General Characteristics (N=155)

Characteristics	Categories	Depression			Cognitive function
Characteristics	Categories	n (%) or M±SD	t or F	p	n (%) or M±SD	t or F	p
Age (year)^†	≤69^a	6.73±3.91	1.06	.349	26.40±2.69	5.58	.005
	70~79^b	5.68±4.14			23.97±3.38		b, c＜a
	≥80^c	5.08±3.63			22.98±3.89
Gender^†	Male	4.30±3.87	-2.12	.036	25.18±3.25	2.37	.019
Gender^†	Female	5.93±3.94			23.53±3.62
Education^†	Illiteracy^a	6.05±4.10	1.50	.204	21.92±3.61	11.54	.001
	Elementary school^b	5.82±3.73			24.59±2.30		a＜b
	Middle school^c	4.90±4.31			25.57±2.30		a, b＜c
	High school^d	3.36±3.41			27.27±1.62		a, b, c＜d
	≥College^e	2.00±0.00			28.00±0.00
Religion	Christianity	5.56±4.20	0.06	.980	23.88±3.91	0.27	.847
	Catholic	5.81±4.13			24.24±3.52
	Buddhism	5.59±3.93			23.98±3.31
	No religion	5.44±3.87			23.56±3.80
Alcohol use	Yes	5.56±3.99	-0.13	.900	23.83±3.61	-0.33	.740
Alcohol use	No	5.66±3.95			24.05±3.59
Smoking	Yes	5.48±3.94	-1.25	.214	23.97±3.47	1.08	.284
Smoking	No	7.10±4.25			22.70±5.19
Perceptions of health status^†	Not very healthy^a	9.33±1.53	9.72	.001	23.00±1.00	1.09	.354
	Not healthy^b	6.95±3.90		c＞b	23.50±3.27
	Moderate^c	3.96±3.38			24.58±3.48
	Healthy^d	3.76±3.63			23.59±3.60
Outdoor activity time (min/day)	＜60	4.97±3.69	2.11	.102	23.93±3.78	0.65	.585
	60~＜180	5.73±4.02			24.11±3.24
	180~＜300	7.40±4.49			23.45±3.72
	≥300	4.50±3.11			21.75±5.85

^† Scheffé test.

Table 3.

Correlations between Depression, Cognitive Function, Vitamin D, Calcium, Perceived Health and Outdoor Activity Time (N=155)

Variables	MMSE-K	Vitamin D	Calcium	Perception of health status	Outdoor activity time
Variables	r (p)	r (p)	r (p)	r (p)	r (p)
GDSSF-K	-.09 (.294)	-.05 (.557)	.17 (.039)	-.38 (＜.001)	.12 (.162)
MMSE-K		.17 (.032)	.02 (.852)	.08 (.357)	-.09 (.261)
Vitamin D			-.09 (.296)	.13 (.103)	.10 (.233)
Calcium				-.01 (.921)	.00 (.970)
Perceptions of health status					-.01 (.876)

Table 4.

Factors influencing Depression (N=155)

Factors	B	SE	β	t	p
Perceptions of health status	-2.21	0.53	-.37	-4.19	＜.001
		R²=.14, Adj. R² =.13, F=17.54, p＜.001

Table 5.

Factors influencing Cognitive Function (N=155)

Factors	B	SE	β	t	p
Education	1.56	0.31	.43	5.05	＜.001
Age	-0.13	0.05	-.21	-2.46	.016
		R²=.28, Adj. R²=.27, F=21.05, p＜.001

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