Effect of vitamin D supplementation on urinary incontinence in older women: ancillary findings from a randomized trial.

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc in this randomized controlled trial publication.

Observational studies among older women have associated vitamin D insufficiency with a greater prevalence and incidence of urinary incontinence.

Who Took Part

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were middle-aged adults and older adults, women only.

The researchers conducted an ancillary study of women aged ≥55 years in the Vitamin D and Omega-3 Trial, a randomized trial with a 2×2 factorial design.

Recruitment of participants started from 2011 to 2014 across 50 US states, and the follow-up of participants ended in January 2018.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized, double-blind 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.

Blinding on both sides kept the participants and researchers unaware of who received Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc.

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

Here, the researchers analyzed women according to their randomization to vitamin D supplementation or placebo, regardless of treatment with omega-3 fatty acid supplementation.

Validated frequency of urinary incontinence questions were added in year 2 of the study and were used again in year 5 at the end of trial.

Prespecified ancillary outcomes included the prevalence of urinary incontinence at years 2 and 5, along with incident incontinence and progression of incontinence (from lower to higher frequency) from year 2 to year 5.

Preplanned subgroup analyses examined the following outcomes: prerandomization of low serum levels of vitamin D (serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D<20 ng/mL), incontinence types, weight categories, and African American race.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Cholecalciferol, Dietary Supplements, Urinary Incontinence, Vitamin D and Vitamins.

Author keywords: epidemiology, longitudinal, omega-3 fatty acids and women.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc.

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 9 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2022 (American journal of obstetrics and gynecology), a journal based in United States.

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