TY - JOUR
T1 - Vitamin D status and cause-specific mortality
T2 - a general population study
AU - Skaaby, Tea
AU - Husemoen, Lise Lotte Nystrup
AU - Pisinger, Charlotta
AU - Jørgensen, Torben
AU - Thuesen, Betina Heinsbæk
AU - Fenger, Mogens
AU - Linneberg, Allan René
PY - 2012/12/20
Y1 - 2012/12/20
N2 - Background: Vitamin D deficiency is associated with an increased risk of all-cause mortality in observational studies. The specific causes of death underlying this association lack clarity. We investigated the association between vitamin D status and cause-specific mortality. Methods: We included a total of 9,146 individuals from the two population-based studies, Monica10 and Inter99, conducted in 1993-94 and 1999-2001, respectively. Vitamin D status was assessed as serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D. Information on causes of death was obtained from The Danish Register of Causes of Death until 31 December 2009. There were a total of 832 deaths (median follow-up 10.3 years). Results: Multivariable Cox regression analyses with age as underlying time axis and vitamin D quartiles showed significant associations between vitamin D status and death caused by diseases of the respiratory system, the digestive system, and endocrine, nutritional and metabolic diseases with hazard ratios (HRs) 0.26 (ptrend = 0.0042), 0.28 (ptrend = 0.0040), and 0.21 (ptrend = 0.035), respectively, for the fourth vitamin D quartile compared to the first. We found non-significantly lower HRs for death caused by mental and behavioural diseases and diseases of the nervous system, but no association between vitamin D status and death caused by neoplasms or diseases of the circulatory system. Conclusion: The associations of vitamin D status and cause-specific mortality suggest that we also look elsewhere (than to cardiovascular disease and cancer) to explain the inverse association between vitamin D status and mortality.
AB - Background: Vitamin D deficiency is associated with an increased risk of all-cause mortality in observational studies. The specific causes of death underlying this association lack clarity. We investigated the association between vitamin D status and cause-specific mortality. Methods: We included a total of 9,146 individuals from the two population-based studies, Monica10 and Inter99, conducted in 1993-94 and 1999-2001, respectively. Vitamin D status was assessed as serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D. Information on causes of death was obtained from The Danish Register of Causes of Death until 31 December 2009. There were a total of 832 deaths (median follow-up 10.3 years). Results: Multivariable Cox regression analyses with age as underlying time axis and vitamin D quartiles showed significant associations between vitamin D status and death caused by diseases of the respiratory system, the digestive system, and endocrine, nutritional and metabolic diseases with hazard ratios (HRs) 0.26 (ptrend = 0.0042), 0.28 (ptrend = 0.0040), and 0.21 (ptrend = 0.035), respectively, for the fourth vitamin D quartile compared to the first. We found non-significantly lower HRs for death caused by mental and behavioural diseases and diseases of the nervous system, but no association between vitamin D status and death caused by neoplasms or diseases of the circulatory system. Conclusion: The associations of vitamin D status and cause-specific mortality suggest that we also look elsewhere (than to cardiovascular disease and cancer) to explain the inverse association between vitamin D status and mortality.
KW - Cause of Death
KW - Confidence Intervals
KW - Denmark
KW - Female
KW - Follow-Up Studies
KW - Humans
KW - Male
KW - Middle Aged
KW - Mortality
KW - Proportional Hazards Models
KW - Risk Factors
KW - Vitamin D
U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0052423
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0052423
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 23285034
SN - 1932-6203
VL - 7
SP - e52423
JO - PLoS Computational Biology
JF - PLoS Computational Biology
IS - 12
ER -
