Vitamin D deficiency in long-term hospitalization psychiatric wards in an equatorial nation.

What Was Tested

This observational study looks at Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc.

This study sought to determine the vitamin D levels of people hospitalized for a period longer than a year in an equatorial nation, Singapore.

The inpatient population was then categorized according to levels to determine the need for supplementation.

Regression models were constructed to test the associations between levels and clinical covariates.

Why It Was Studied

Deficiency has been linked to specific mental health sequelae.

Furthermore, deficiency may be perpetuated by medications routinely prescribed to people with severe mental illness.

Who Took Part

According to the abstract, 403 individuals were involved.

PubMed indexes the participants as middle-aged adults and older adults, both men and women.

How the Study Was Run

Total 25-hydroxy vitamin D in serum and plasma levels were tested in 403 individuals in long-term psychiatric wards.

Blood serum and plasma levels were classified into three groups.

What Was Measured

Therefore, symptoms of mental illness may be exacerbated by deficient levels of vitamin D, and treatments for mental illness may exacerbate deficiency.

The subject headings attached to it are Calcifediol, Comorbidity, Length of Stay, Mental Disorders, Psychiatric Department, Hospital, Singapore and Vitamin D Deficiency.

The authors tagged it with the keywords institutionalization, long-term hospitalization and psychiatry.

What This Means in Plain Language

This is an observational study of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc in 403 individuals.

With several hundred people or more, it is a fairly large study for this kind of research.

Its findings take up roughly 5 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2020 (Asia-Pacific psychiatry : official journal of the Pacific Rim College of Psychiatrists), a journal based in Australia.

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