Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction

Inadequate low serum of 25(OH) vitamin D leads to skeletal effect (rickets, osteoporosis, osteomalacia) and furthermore exhibits nonskeletal effects – increase the risk of cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes, mental illness and many others. Vitamin D deficiency is associated with a severe morbidity burden and low functional performance among elderly patients. A long length-of-stay (LOS) among elderly patients is related to revere morbidity burden and low functional performance too.

Aim

The aim of the study was to determine the association between concentration of 25(OH)D and duration of hospitalization at Geriatric Department.

Material and methods

To the study was enrolled 152 patients above 60 years, hospitalized in Geriatric Department in hospital in Piekary Slaskie (Poland). The study was conducted between 2013 and 2015. Each patient provided consent before included to the study. Blood samples were collected after overnight fasting. The serum level of 25-hydroxyvitamin D (ng/ml) was measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).

Results

Mean age of the study group was 76.24 ± 7.47 years. The mean 25(OH)D level among study group was 14.61 ± 5.96 ng/ml. The mean time of hospitalization was 10.25 ± 3.95 days (minimum was 2 days and maximum was 22 days). We observed correlation between serum level of 25-hydroxyvitamin D and long of hospitalization geriatric patients (r = -0.25; P = 0.0085). We also observed that mean time of hospitalization among group patients with deficiency of vitamin D (defined as 25OH D below 20.0 ng/ml) was a little longer in comparison to group of patients with suboptimal vitamin D (defined as 25 OH D between 20.0–30.0 ng/ml), but this different was no statistically significant (10.46 ± 4.29 days vs 9.55 ± 2.70 days; P = 0.6463). Also we divided patients into three group with serum level of 25-hydroxyvitamin D of below10.0 ng/ml (first group), 10.0–20.0 ng/ml (second group) and 20.0–30.0 ng/ml (third group). The mean time of hospitalization was the highest among the first group of patients (12.15 days) and lower into second and third group (respectively 9.77 and 9.55 days), but this was no statistically different (P = 0.0981).

Conclusion

25(OH)D should be considered as a potential biomarker of long length-of-stay among elderly patients hospitalized in Geriatric Department. More researches are needed to confirm this thesis.