Vitamin D Supplementation has no effect on Cognition of elderly

Written By : Jacinthlyn Sylvia |Medically Reviewed By : Dr. Kamal Kant Kohli Published On 2023-04-07T09:45:03+05:30 | Updated On 10 April 2023 3:43 PM IST

A new study by Hai Pham and team showed that monthly basis bolus doses of vitamin D supplementation had no effect on cognitive performance in older persons. The findings of this study were published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

Observational studies have established a relationship between low blood 25-hydroxyvitamin D content and an increased risk of cognitive impairment. Randomized controlled studies have shown inconsistent results, and few have been undertaken in the general population. As a result, this study was carried out in order to evaluate the aforementioned assertions.

The D-Health Study, a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled experiment, included 21,315 community-dwelling Australians aged 60 to 84 years. During 5 years, the intervention consisted of monthly oral dosages of 60,000 international units of vitamin D or a placebo. The Telephone Interview for Cognitive Status (TICS) was used to measure cognitive function in a randomly selected group of 70-year-old volunteers 2 and 5 years following randomization. The primary goal of this study was the TICS score; the secondary result was the proportion of patients with cognitive impairment (defined as a TICS score of 25). Mixed models were used to assess the data (linear and logistic).

The key findings of this study were:

1. In year 2, 3887 people were questioned, and in year 5, 3614 people were interviewed.

2. During these times, the mean TICS score was 32.3 and 32.2, respectively.

3. Vitamin D supplementation had no effect on cognitive function as indicated by TICS score (mean difference 0.04; 95% CI 0.14 to 0.23) or risk of cognitive impairment.

It is unknown if dosing unscreened persons with vitamin D3 improves cognitive performance in the elderly. Vitamin D supplementation of elderly persons who are already vitamin D deficient is unlikely to improve cognition much.

Reference:

Pham, H., Waterhouse, M., Rahman, S., Baxter, C., Romero, B. D., McLeod, D. S. A., Armstrong, B. K., Ebeling, P. R., English, D. R., Hartel, G., Kimlin, M. G., O’Connell, R. L., van der Pols, J. C., Venn, A. J., Webb, P. M., Whiteman, D. C., Almeida, O. P., & Neale, R. E. (2023). Vitamin D supplementation and cognition—Results from analyses of the D‐Health trial. In Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1111/jgs.18247

Journal of the American Geriatrics Societyvitamin d supplementationcognitive impairment

Source : Journal of the American Geriatrics Society

Jacinthlyn Sylvia

Neuroscience Masters graduate

Jacinthlyn Sylvia, a Neuroscience Master's graduate from Chennai has worked extensively in deciphering the neurobiology of cognition and motor control in aging. She also has spread-out exposure to Neurosurgery from her Bachelor’s. She is currently involved in active Neuro-Oncology research. She is an upcoming neuroscientist with a fiery passion for writing. Her news cover at Medical Dialogues feature recent discoveries and updates from the healthcare and biomedical research fields. She can be reached at editorial@medicaldialogues.in

Dr. Kamal Kant Kohli

Dr Kamal Kant Kohli-MBBS, DTCD- a chest specialist with more than 30 years of practice and a flair for writing clinical articles, Dr Kamal Kant Kohli joined Medical Dialogues as a Chief Editor of Medical News. Besides writing articles, as an editor, he proofreads and verifies all the medical content published on Medical Dialogues including those coming from journals, studies,medical conferences,guidelines etc. Email: drkohli@medicaldialogues.in. Contact no. 011-43720751