Serum Vitamin D Deficiency as a Predictor of Incident Non-Alzheimer Dementias: A 7-Year Longitudinal Study

Abstract

Background: Hypovitaminosis D has been cross-sectionally associated with dementia and stroke. The objective of this longitudinal study was to determine whether serum vitamin D deficiency at baseline could predict the onset of non-Alzheimer dementias (NAD) within 7 years among older women. Methods: Forty high-functioning older women (78.4 years, 76.4/82.0; median, 25th/75th percentile) from the EPIDOS Toulouse study were divided into two groups based on vitamin D deficiency (i.e., serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D <10 ng/ml) at baseline. At the end of the 7-year follow-up period, women matching the DSM-IV but not the NINCDS-ADRDA criteria were diagnosed with NAD while those matching the NINCDS-ADRDA criteria were considered to have Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Subtle cognitive impairments at baseline, cardiovascular risk factors and Parkinson’s disease were used as potential confounders. Results: NAD was reported in 6 women (82.8 years, 80.6/86.0) after 7 years of follow-up. More NAD were observed in women with vitamin D deficiency (p = 0.023). There was no between-group difference regarding the onset of AD (p = 0.332). We found an association between vitamin D deficiency at baseline and the onset of NAD (adjusted odds ratio = 19.57, p = 0.042). Conversely, vitamin D deficiency was not associated with AD (p = 0.222). Conclusion: Baseline vitamin D deficiency predicted the onset of NAD within 7 years among older women.

Vitamin D Receptor Gene Haplotype Is Associated with Late-Onset Alzheimer's Disease

“…Another study showed significantly higher Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) scores for vitamin-D-sufficient patients compared to vitamin-D insufficient ones (Oudshoorn et al 2008). Valuable, though limited in number, longitudinal studies indicated low levels of vitamin D were associated with substantial cognitive decline in the elderly population (Llewellyn et al 2010) and baseline vitamin D deficiency predicted the onset of non Alzheimer dementias (Annweiler et al 2012b). Importantly, Annweiler et al (2012a) showed the association of elevated serum 25OHD concentration with a lower risk of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and the association of low 25OHD concentrations with MCI status in older non-demented people with subjective memory complaint, suggesting that hypovitaminosis D may participate in the dementia process from prodromal stages.…”

Potential role of vitamin D in prevention of skeletal and extraskeletal diseases in older people

“…36 Prospective longitudinal cohort studies in older adults have also reported that hypovitaminosis D predicted increased incidence of dementia after 7 years of follow-up. 19 The threshold at 10 ng/mL, but not at 20 ng/mL, was associated with degenerative cognition. Since hypovitaminosis D occurs gradually, patients with 25(OH)D concentration lower than 10 ng/mL have cronically low vitamin levels leading to brain dysfunction for a long time.…”

“…It is known that vitamin D has a wide range of biological actions (Table 2), [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25] and that vitamin D receptor is present in most tissues and cells in the body. 26 As a result, it is not unexpected that multiple studies 27 have associated vitamin D deficiency with cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, many types of cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn's disease, multiple sclerosis, asthma, and infectious diseases.…”

“…28 An important prospective study with a large sample of patients revealed that 25(OH)D <15 ng/mL compared to 25(OH)D >30 ng/mL was associated with highly significant increases in the prevalence Bone Conflicting data about vitamin D supplementation effects on bone fracture risk [11][12][13][14] Vitamin D supplementation has little effect on BMD 15,16 Cardiometabolic Low vitamin D is associated with hypertension, hyperlipidemia, peripheral vascular disease, coronary artery disease, heart failure, and stroke 17 Vitamin D supplementation reduces the incidence of diabetes 18 Central nervous system Hypovitaminosis D is predictor for dementia 19 No significant associations between lower levels of 25(OH)D and lower cognitive test scores…”

Beta Amyloid Suppresses the Expression of the Vitamin D Receptor Gene and Induces the Expression of the Vitamin D Catabolic Enzyme Gene in Hippocampal Neurons

“…Recent human studies reported low levels of plasma 25-hydroxyvitamin D 3 in individuals suffering from mood disorders, Parkinson's disease, AD or cognitive decline [24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32]. Another study showed significantly higher Mini-Mental State Examination scores for patients with sufficient levels of vitamin D compared with those of patients deficient in vitamin D [33].…”