Dr. Annweiler, of the Department of Internal Medicine and Geriatrics, Angers University Hospital, France, and colleagues categorized subjects into two groups according to deficient (=10 ng/mL) levels of serum 25(OH)D. The investigators used Pfeiffer’s Short Portable Mental State Questionnaire (SPMSQ) and defined cognitive impairment as a score of less than 8 out of 10. Subjects with lower serum 25(OH)D levels were twice as likely to be cognitively impaired compared with nondeficient subjects. Overall, women with vitamin D deficiency (n=129) had a lower mean SPMSQ score and were more likely to score below 8 than those who were not deficient (n=623).
“The population of the EPIDOS study was relatively healthy, with high BMI and regular practice of physical activity, without any significant differences between the women who were deficient in vitamin D and those who were not,” Dr. Annweiler and colleagues wrote. “The association between serum 25(OH)D deficiency and cognitive impairment remained significant even after adjustment for these covariables.”