Associations between Vitamin D deficiency, musculoskeletal health, and cardiometabolic risk among community-living people in Taiwan: Age and sex-specific relationship

The role of serum vitamin D (Vit D) in cardiometabolic and muscle health remains unclear. The study aimed to evaluate associations of Vit D and factors of healthy aging among community-living middle-aged and older people in Taiwan. Analytic data on 1839 community-living older adults were excerpted from I-Lan Longitudinal Aging Study. All participants were collected demographic characteristics, serum Vit D, functional assessment, and cardiometabolic risk factors. The prevalence of Vit D insufficiency and deficiency in this study was 50.5% and 33.6%, respectively. Among 617 participants with Vit D deficiency, 72.3% of them were women. In multivariate logistic regression, the independent risk factors of Vit D deficiency were male gender (odds ratio [OR]: 0.266; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.213-0.333; P<0.001), higher BMI (OR: 1.036; 95% CI: 1.005-1.067; P=0.022), high total cholesterol (OR: 1.437; 95% CI: 1.160-1.779; P=0.001), and high triglyceride (OR: 1.865; 95% CI: 1.446-2.404; p<0.001). In multinomial logistic regression for 3-level Vit D status analysis, similar trend was found among participants with Vit D insufficiency. Insulin resistance increased in 2.31 and 1.71-folds in Vit D deficiency and insufficiency groups. Besides, association between Vit D deficiency and osteopenia was found only in women. In conclusion, Vit D deficiency was more common in women, and associated with poorer musculoskeletal health and higher cardiovascular and metabolic risk, including higher BMI, DBP, insulin resistance, total cholesterol, and triglyceride.