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Vitamin K insufficiency predicts incidence of frailty in community-dwelling older adults: The Otassha Study

Journal of Bone and Mineral Metabolism volume 41, pages 817–821 (2023)Cite this article

Abstract

Introduction

Vitamin K is a fat-soluble vitamin discovered as an essential factor for blood coagulation. It is suggested that vitamin K can benefit several aging-related diseases, including osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, and dementia. We previously reported the cross-sectional association of vitamin K insufficiency with frailty in community-dwelling older adults.

Materials and methods

In October 2020, a health examination of community-dwelling older adults (The Otassha Study) was performed, including frailty evaluation and blood tests. We used a ucOC and OC ratio (ucOC/OC) to indicate vitamin K insufficiency. One year later, we conducted a follow-up evaluation of frailty on 518 people who were not frail at baseline. The serum ucOC/OC at the baseline examination was divided into quartiles (Q1, Q2, Q3, and Q4). Odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated using multivariate binary logistic regression for each quartile of ucOC/OC to determine the risk of incident frailty in the follow-up study, with the lowest quartile (Q1) as the reference.

Results

Among the 518 older adults who were not frail at baseline, 66 people (12.7%) became frail in the follow-up study. In the multivariate binary logistic regression analysis, setting the lowest quartile of ucOC/OC (Q1) as a reference, the OR of the incident frailty in the highest quartile (Q4) was 2.53 (95% CI 1.07, 4.92) which was significantly different from Q1.

Conclusion

The findings of this longitudinal study suggest that vitamin K insufficiency has nutritional importance in predicting the future incidence of frailty in the Japanese older adult population.

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Acknowledgements

We thank all the participants for The Otassha Study.

Funding

This study was funded by TMIG institutional project funding (SASM).

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Author notes

  1. Yosuke Osuka

    Present address: Department of Frailty Research, Center for Gerontology and Social Science, Research Institute, National Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology, 7-430 Morioka-cho, Obu-shi, Aichi, 474-8511, Japan

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Systems Aging Science and Medicine, Tokyo Metropolitan Institute for Geriatrics and Gerontology, 35-2 Sakae-cho, Itabashi-ku, Tokyo, 173-0015, Japan

    Kotaro Azuma & Satoshi Inoue

  2. Department of Geriatric Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-8655, Japan

    Kotaro Azuma

  3. Research Team for Promoting Independence and Mental Health, Tokyo Metropolitan Institute for Geriatrics and Gerontology, 35-2 Sakae-cho, Itabashi-ku, Tokyo, 173-0015, Japan

    Yosuke Osuka, Narumi Kojima & Hiroyuki Sasai

Authors
  1. Kotaro Azuma
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  2. Yosuke Osuka
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  3. Narumi Kojima
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  4. Hiroyuki Sasai
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  5. Satoshi Inoue
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Contributions

All the authors conceived and designed the study. KA, YO, NK, and HS acquired the data and KA conducted the data analyses. All the authors contributed to the interpretation of data, drafted the manuscript, and approved the final version for publication.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Satoshi Inoue.

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Conflict of interest

All the authors have no conflicts of interest.

Ethical standards

This study complied with the current laws regarding ethical standards in Japan and the study protocol was approved by the institutional ethical committee of the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute for Geriatrics and Gerontology (approved number: H18-17, R1-20).

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Cite this article

Azuma, K., Osuka, Y., Kojima, N. et al. Vitamin K insufficiency predicts incidence of frailty in community-dwelling older adults: The Otassha Study. J Bone Miner Metab 41, 817–821 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00774-023-01457-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00774-023-01457-4

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