The Association of Vitamin D Status with Mild Cognitive Impairment and Dementia Subtypes: A Cross-Sectional Analysis in Dutch Geriatric Outpatients

Background: Vitamin D deficiency is associated with all-cause dementia and Alzheimer's disease (AD). At the same time, this knowledge is limited specifically for vascular dementia (VaD), while data regarding other subtypes of dementia are even more limited. Objective: To investigate the association of 25-hydroxy vitamin D (25(OH)D) status with dementia subtypes in an outpatient geriatric population. Methods: In a cross-sectional design, we analyzed data from 1,758 patients of an outpatient memory clinic in The Netherlands. Cognitive disorders were diagnosed by a multidisciplinary team according to international clinical standards. At each first-visit 25(OH)D levels were measured. Data were analyzed using ANCOVA in four models with age, gender, BMI, education, alcohol, smoking, season, polypharmacy, calcium, eGFR, and glucose as co-variates. 25(OH)D was treated as a continuous square rooted (sqr) variable. Results: In the fully adjusted model, reduced 25(OH)D serum levels (sqr) were found in AD (estimated mean 7.77 ± 0.11 CI95% 7.55-7.99): and in VaD (estimated mean 7.60 ± 0.16 CI95% 7.28-7.92) patients compared to no-dementia (ND) patients (estimated mean 8.27 ± 0.09 CI95% 8.10-8.45) (ND-AD: p = 0.006, CI95% 0.08-0.92.; ND-VaD p = 0.004 CI95% 0.13-1.22). We did not find differences in 25(OH)D levels of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or other dementia patients compared to ND patients, nor differences in comparing dementia subtypes. Conclusion: We observed significantly lower 25(OH)D serum levels in both AD and VaD patients compared to no-dementia patients, but no significant differences between MCI and Lewy body and mixed dementia subtypes in this cross-sectional study of a geriatric outpatient clinic population.