Vitamin D Deficiency Is a Predictor of Mortality in Elderly with Chronic Heart Failure

• Published in: Acta endocrinologica (Bucharest, Romania : 2005) Vol. 17; no. 3; pp. 358 - 364
• Main Author: Yilmaz Oztekin, G
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Romania Carol Davila University Press 01-07-2021
• Subjects: Endocrine Care; Heart failure; Vitamin D; Elderly; Mortality
• ISSN: 1841-0987; 1843-066X
• DOI: 10.4183/aeb.2021.358

The prevalence of both heart failure and vitamin D deficiency increases with age and is associated with poor outcome in the elderly.
We aimed to investigate the relationship between all-cause mortality and vitamin D deficiency in elderly patients with chronic heart failure.
It is a retrospective, observational cross-sectional study. Median follow-up time was 497 days.
302 patients aged ≥65 years heart failure patients was categorized into tertiles based on the 25-hydroxy-vitamin D levels. Clinical and laboratory parameters were evaluated according to tertiles. Hospitalization rates and overall survival were compared between tertiles. Independent predictors of all cause mortality were defined.
Patients with low vitamin D tertile were mostly women (p=0.001), and had a worse NYHA functional class (p=0.005). During follow-up, deaths were more frequent in the first tertile (p = 0.001). All-cause mortality increased significantly with decreasing vitamin D tertiles (from third tertile 7.9%, to 11.9%, to 26%; log rank test p=0.003). No significant difference was observed at the composite endpoint of mortality or HF hospitalizations (P=0.451). Multivariate analysis supported that low vitamin D concentration was an independent predictor of all causes of mortality (HR 0.93; 95% CI 0.89-0.97; p=0.004).
Low vitamin D levels were independent predictors of all-cause mortality in the elderly population with chronic heart failure.