Relationship of vitamin D levels to blood pressure in a biethnic population
Nutrition, Metabolism & Cardiovascular Diseases, 07/10/2012
Sakamoto R et al. – Systolic blood pressure (BP) is inversely associated with 25(OH)D levels in Whites but not in Blacks. Vitamin D may not be a major contributor to the White–Black differential in BP.
Methods- Authors examined cross–sectional data in the Adventist Health Study–2 (AHS–2), a cohort of non–smoking, mostly non–drinking men and women following a range of diets from vegan to non–vegetarian.
- Each participant provided dietary, demographic, lifestyle and medical history data.
- Measurements of weight, height, waist circumference, percent body fat and blood pressure and fasting blood samples were obtained from a randomly selected non–diabetic sample of 284 Blacks and 284 Whites aged 30–95 years.
- Multiple regression analyses were used to assess independent relationships between blood pressure and 25(OH)D levels.
- Levels of 25(OH)D were inversely associated with systolic BP in Whites after control for age, gender, BMI, and use of BP–lowering medications (β–coefficient –0.23 [95% CI, –0.43, –0.03; p = 0.02]).
- This relationship was not seen in Blacks (β–coefficient 0.08 [95% CI, –0.14, 0.30; p = 0.4]).
- Results were similar when controlling for waist circumference or percentage body fat instead of BMI.
- No relationship between serum 25(OH)D and diastolic BP was seen.
