Findings in a Rutgers University-led study that was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition suggest that a vitamin D deficiency could limit mobility in older adults.
 
The study, which was conducted on patients 65 years or older in the United States and Canada, examined the influence of vitamin D levels in blood serum and nutrition on mobility. Reserachers focused on the death rates and inability to walk ten feet without someone’s help after a broken hip surgery.
 
“An important next step is learning how vitamin D affects mobility,” the study’s senior author, Sue Shapses, said. “For example, it is not clear if severe vitamin D deficiency is associated with direct effects on muscle, cognition, and/or other organ systems.”
 
Though the factor wasn’t statistically significant, findings showed that vitamin D levels greater than 12 nanograms per milliliter (12 ppb) in blood serum are associated with a higher rate of walking at 30 and 60 days after hip fracture surgery. Patients with high levels of parathyroid hormone, which leads to high calcium content in blood, had reduced mobility if their nutritional status was poor.
 
“This matters because vitamin D deficiency and malnutrition are common disorders in elderly patients with hip fractures and often occur together since both are complications of poor nutrition,” Shapses said.
 
There is a need for balance, however, according to another Rutgers-led study. Researchers found that those with a high vitamin D intake of 4,000 IU daily, compared with 600 IU daily, had slower reaction times, which could potentially boost the risk of falls and fractures.

Above all else, the study concludes that its findings warrant further investigation into the biological mechanisms responsible for better outcomes in those who are not deficient in vitamin D. 
 
A broken hip is among the most serious fall injuries, and is hard to recover from. Many people are unable to live on their own afterward. In the U.S., more than 300,000 people 65 years and older are hospitalized for hip fractures annually, and falling causes more than 95% of these fractures. Women experience about three quarters of hip fractures, and the number of fractures is likely to rise as the population ages, according to CDC.

The morbidity and mortality rates associated with hip fractures in seniors, compounded by the compelling need to be able to walk after surgery, makes optimal outcomes crucial in these incidents.