Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D and cognitive function in Korean older adults living in rural area

Ye Som Shin; Bo Youl Choi; Mi Kyung Kim; Yoon Jung Yang

doi:10.4163/jnh.2019.52.5.465

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Shin, Choi, Kim, and Yang: Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D and cognitive function in Korean older adults living in rural area

Research Article

Journal of Nutrition and Health 2019; 52(5): 465-474.

Published online: 30 October 2019

DOI: https://doi.org/10.4163/jnh.2019.52.5.465

Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D and cognitive function in Korean older adults living in rural area

Ye Som Shin¹

, Bo Youl Choi²

, Mi Kyung Kim²

, Yoon Jung Yang³

¹Department of Clinical Nutrition, Graduate School of Public Health, Dongduk Women's University, Seoul 02748, Korea.

²Department of Preventive Medicine, College of Medicine, Hanyang University, Seoul 04763, Korea.

³Department of Food and Nutrition, School of Natural Science, Dongduk Women's University, Seoul 02748, Korea.

To whom correspondence should be addressed. tel: +82-2-940-4465, yjyang@dongduk.ac.kr

Received 9 April 2019 Revised 22 August 2019 Accepted 15 October 2019

The Korean Nutrition Society

(open-access):

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 examined the association between the serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentration and the cognitive functions in Korean elderly.

Methods

The subjects were 393 adults aged 60 years or older who participated in the Yangpyeong cohort between July 2009 and August 2010. The subjects were classified into deficiency, insufficiency, or adequacy groups according to the serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentration diagnostic criteria suggested by the US Institute of Medicine (IOM). The cognitive function was assessed based on the Korean version of the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE-KC). The dietary intake was assessed using the quantitative food frequency questionnaire with 106 food items.

Results

The proportions of deficiency, insufficiency, or adequacy in serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D were 6.6%, 44.5%, and 48.9%, respectively. The serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentration was significantly higher in men than in women and in outdoor workers than in other occupations. The adequacy group had higher MMSE-KC scores than the other two groups, but not to a significant degree. The proportion of cognitive impairment tended to decrease with increasing serum vitamin D concentration to deficiency, insufficiency, and adequacy (p for trend = 0.029). The deficiency group had a 2.28 times higher risk of cognitive impairment than the adequacy group, but the difference was not statistically significant (OR, 2.28; 95% CI, 0.18 ~ 1.07, p for trend = 0.119).

Conclusion

The serum vitamin D concentration tended to be associated with the cognitive function in elderly Koreans living in rural areas. To confirm the associations, further longitudinal studies with large samples were required.

Keywords: serum vitamin D, cognitive function, mild cognitive impairment, elderly

Figures and Tables

Fig. 1

The averages of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations according to general characteristics. Each bar presents the mean ± SD. Letters above bar represent significant differences by one-way ANOVA followed by post hoc with Tukey test.

Table 1

General characteristics of the study subjects according to serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations

1) p-value by one-way ANOVA for continuous variables and the Chi-square test for categorical variables

2) Mean ± SD

3) Letters represent significant differences by one-way ANOVA followed by post hoc with Tukey test.

Table 2

Nutrient intake of the study subjects by serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations

1) p-value by general linear model adjusting for age, sex

2) Mean ± SD

Table 3

Average of MMSE-KC1) part score by serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations

1) MMSE-KC: Korean version of the Mini-Mental State Examination in the Korean version of CERAD Assessment Packet

2) p-value by general linear model adjusting for age, sex, and education level

3) Mean ± SD

Table 4

Percentage of cognitive impairment by serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations

1) p-value by the Chi-square test for categorical variables

2) p for trend by Cochran-Armitage test

Table 5

Odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (95% CI) for the risk of cognitive impairment by serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations

OR and 95% CI were obtained using multiple logistic regression analysis

1) Model 1: adjusted age, sex and education level

2) Model 2: adjusted age, sex, education level and drink

3) p for trend by Cochran-Armitage test

Notes

This research was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea grant funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT & Future Planning (No. 2016R1A2B2011352).

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ORCID iDs

Ye Som Shin
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9772-8457

Bo Youl Choi
https://orcid.org/http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0115-5736

Mi Kyung Kim
https://orcid.org/http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8503-2631

Yoon Jung Yang
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9395-0854

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