Vitamin D Supplementation Prevents Elderly Pneumonia

Tohoku University

Status: Completed

Conditions: Bacterial Pneumonia

Treatments: Dietary Supplement: Vitamin D3

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT00877422

KAKENHI 20390285

IDAC-VD-01

Details and patient eligibility

About

Pneumonia is the fourth leading cause of death and frequently occurs in institutionalized elderly people in Japan. Recently, several clinical and experimental studies have reported the importance of vitamin D in the regulation of immune functions and its deficiency is associated with susceptibility to some infections. In the present study, the investigators hypothesize that deficiency of serum vitamin D is associated with development of pneumonia, and supplementation of vitamin D may lower the incidence of pneumonia and prolong survival in institutionalized elderly subjects.

Enrollment: 100 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 65+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Subjects are more than 65 years old and were resident in the facility for at least 6 months.
• Subjects have no conditions known to interfere with vitamin D metabolism.

Exclusion criteria

• Subjects are excluded if they have:

  • renal failure
  • hepatic failure
  • hyper- or hypo-parathyroidism
  • HIV infection, or malignant diseases

• Subjects are also excluded if they are taking corticosteroid, thiazide diuretics, or supplementary vitamins.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

---

100 participants in 3 patient groups

Group A

No Intervention group

Description:

Group A is identified as serum vitamin D level more than 16 ng/dl.

Group B

Active Comparator group

Description:

Group B is identified as serum vitamin D level less than 16 ng/dl and is supplemented with vitamin D3.

Treatment:

Dietary Supplement: Vitamin D3

Group C

No Intervention group

Description:

Group C is identified as serum vitamin D less than 16 ng/dl and is not supplemented with vitamin D3.