Associations Between Vitamin D Status and Pain in Older Adults: The Invecchiare in Chianti Study

doi:10.1111/j.1532-5415.2008.01644.x

If you are seeing this message, you may be experiencing temporary network problems. Please wait a few minutes and refresh the page. If the problem persists, you may wish to report it to your local Network Manager.

It is also possible that your web browser is not configured or not able to display style sheets. In this case, although the visual presentation will be degraded, the site should continue to be functional. We recommend using the latest version of Microsoft or Mozilla web browser to help minimise these problems.

Wiley InterScience

Journal of the American Geriatrics Society

Volume 56 Issue 5, Pages 785 - 791

Published Online: 6 Mar 2008

Journal compilation 2010 The American Geriatrics Society/Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Published on behalf of

Go to Society Site

Next Abstract >

Save Article to My Profile Download Citation Request Permissions

Abstract | References | Full Text: HTML, PDF (Size: 97K) | Related Articles | Citation Tracking

CLINICAL INVESTIGATIONS

Associations Between Vitamin D Status and Pain in Older Adults: The Invecchiare in Chianti Study

Gregory E. Hicks, PhD, PT ^*† , Michelle Shardell, PhD ^† , Ram R. Miller, MDCM, MSc ^† , Stefania Bandinelli, MD ^‡ , Jack Guralnik, MD, PhD ^§ , Antonio Cherubini, MD ^∥ , Fulvio Lauretani, MD ^# , and Luigi Ferrucci, MD, PhD ^**

From the ^*Department of Physical Therapy, University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware; ^†Division of Gerontology, Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Maryland, Baltimore, Maryland; ^‡Laboratory of Clinical Epidemiology, INRCA Geriatric Department, Florence, Italy; ^§Laboratory of Epidemiology, Demography, and Biometry, National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland; ^∥Institute of Gerontology and Geriatrics, University of Perugia Medical School, Perugia, Italy; ^#Tuscany Regional Health Agency, Florence, Italy; and ^**Longitudinal Studies Section, Clinical Research Branch, National Institute on Aging, Baltimore, Maryland

Address correspondence to Gregory E. Hicks, PhD, PT, University of Delaware, Department of Physical Therapy, 303 McKinly Lab, Newark, DE 19716. E-mail: ghicks@udel.edu

KEYWORDS

vitamin D • pain • aging

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: To examine cross-sectional associations between vitamin D status and musculoskeletal pain and whether they differ by sex.

DESIGN: Population-based study of persons living in the Chianti geographic area (Tuscany, Italy).

SETTING: Community.

PARTICIPANTS: Nine hundred fifty-eight persons (aged ≥65) selected from city registries of Greve and Bagno a Ripoli.

MEASUREMENTS: Pain was categorized as mild or no pain in the lower extremities and back; moderate to severe back pain, no lower extremity pain; moderate to severe lower extremity pain, no back pain; and moderate to severe lower extremity and back pain (dual region). Vitamin D was measured according to radioimmunoassay, and deficiency was defined as 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) less than 25 nmol/L.

RESULTS: The mean age±standard deviation was 75.1±7.3 for women and 73.9±6.8 for men. Fifty-eight percent of women had at least moderate pain in some location, compared with 27% of men. After adjusting for potential confounders, vitamin D deficiency was not associated with lower extremity pain or dual-region pain, although it was associated with a significantly higher prevalence of at least moderate back pain without lower extremity pain in women (odds ratio=1.96, 95% confidence interval=1.01–3.59) but not in men.

CONCLUSION: Lower concentrations of 25(OH)D are associated with significant back pain in older women but not men. Because vitamin D deficiency and chronic pain are fairly prevalent in older adults, these findings suggest it may be worthwhile to query older adults about their pain and screen older women with significant back pain for vitamin D deficiency.

DIGITAL OBJECT IDENTIFIER (DOI)

10.1111/j.1532-5415.2008.01644.x About DOI