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No link found between vitamin D status, type 2 diabetes risk in older men
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Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels are not associated with incident type 2 diabetes in older men, according to an analysis of the Osteoporotic Fractures in Men study.
“Although age-adjusted results suggested a trend for a protective effect [of vitamin D], further adjustment for BMI (related to both incident diabetes and 25-[OH]D levels) indicated that this effect was largely explained by the inverse association between vitamin D status and high BMI,” Nicola Napoli, MD, of the University Campus Bio-Medico di Roma, Italy, and colleagues wrote.
Nicola Napoli
Napoli and colleagues analyzed data from 1,939 American men aged at least 65 years participating in the Osteoporotic Fractures in Men (MrOS) study, an observational study of men recruited from Birmingham, Alabama; Minneapolis; Palo Alto, California; the Monongahela Valley near Pittsburgh; Portland, Oregon; and San Diego (mean age, 73 years; mean BMI, 27.2 kg/m²). All men attended a baseline visit where they provided fasting morning blood samples, medical and personal history and completed food frequency questionnaires, and returned for four follow-up visits, where they self-reported incident diabetes and medication history. Mean 25-(OH)D level for the cohort was 26.1 ng/mL. Researchers used Cox proportional hazard models to assess the relationship between vitamin D levels and incident type 2 diabetes, using 25-(OH)D as both a continuous and categorical variable (categorized into quartiles).
In continuous variable models adjusted for age and site, researchers found a nonsignificant trend toward a protective effect for higher 25-(OH)D levels on risk for type 2 diabetes (HR = 0.87; 95% CI, 0.73-1.04). The potential association was attenuated after adjusting for BMI, race, season of blood draw and calcium intake (HR = 1.03; 95% CI, 0.85-1.25).
In models stratified by vitamin D quartiles, researchers found no association between 25-(OH)D and incident type 2 diabetes (P > .2 for trend).
“While we cannot determine with our observational study if vitamin D supplementation will decrease diabetes risk, our findings suggest that vitamin D status is not associated with diabetes risk in men,” the researchers wrote. – by Regina Schaffer
Disclosure: Napoli reports receiving a research grant from Ministero della Salute.
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