Components of frailty, sarcopenia and their association with vitamin D deficiency. Cross-sectional, analytical study.

Introduction: In older adults, the association of frailty and sarcopenia with vitamin D deficiency is well known, but the association of the components of frailty syndrome has been poorly studied.

Objective: To determine the association of the components of frailty and sarcopenia with vitamin D insufficiency in older adults.

Methods: Adults were studied, in whom age, education, marital status, history of fractures, hospitalizations, anthropometric indicators, sarcopenia, Charlson index, polypharmacy, Fried's frailty phenotype, and plasma vitamin D were recorded; figures < 30 ng/mL were considered indicative of vitamin D insufficiency. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used for statistical analysis. The association was determined by binary logistic regression.

Results: One-hundred and seventy-five adults with a mean age of 71.7 ± 6.7 years (95% CI = 60-90 years) were studied. Binary logistic regression showed that the variables associated with vitamin D deficiency were exhaustion (OR = 2.6, 95% CI = 1.0-6.5, p = 0.03), frailty (OR = 9.2, 95% CI = 2.5-34.1, p = 0.001) and pre-frailty (OR = 4.6, 95% CI = 2.1-10.0, p < 0.001).

Conclusion: The frail and pre-frail phenotypes, as well as exhaustion, are associated with vitamin D insufficiency.