Vitamin D supplementation for the prevention of depression and poor physical function in older persons: the D-Vitaal study, a randomized clinical trial.

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc, published as a randomized controlled trial.

The D-Vitaal study primarily aimed to investigate the effect of vitamin D supplementation on depressive symptoms, functional limitations, and physical performance in a high-risk older population with low vitamin D status.

Secondary aims included examining the effect of vitamin D supplementation on anxiety symptoms, cognitive functioning, mobility, handgrip strength, and health-related quality of life.

Linear mixed-models analyses were conducted to assess the effect of the intervention.

Why It Was Studied

Depressive symptoms and impaired physical functioning are prevalent among older adults.

Who Took Part

The study group was 155 participants.

The age groups tagged for this paper are middle-aged adults and older adults, both men and women.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized and placebo-controlled study.

Random assignment meant chance, not the researchers, decided who got Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc and who got the comparison, which limits bias.

Some participants received a placebo instead of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc, giving a reference point.

Serum 25(OH)D was measured at baseline and 6 mo; outcomes were assessed at baseline, 6 mo, and 12 mo.

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Depression, Dietary Supplements, Hand Strength, Physical Functional Performance, Quality of Life and Vitamin D.

Author keywords: 25(OH)D, depressive symptoms, functional limitations, older adults, physical functioning and physical performance.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized and placebo-controlled study of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc in 155 participants.

Its findings take up roughly 4 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2019 (The American journal of clinical nutrition), a journal based in United States.

More context: the Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc compound page, all human trials.