Post-stroke Vitamin D supplementation helped in 11 ways – May 2023


A systematic review examining the effect of vitamin D supplementation on functional outcomes post-stroke

Clin Rehabil. 2023 May 11 doi: 10.1177/02692155231174599
Jamie L Fleet 1 2 3, Amanda McIntyre 3 4, Shannon Janzen 3, Marcus Saikaley 3, Michael Qaqish 5, Robert Cianfarani 5, Alexandra Papaioannou 5 6 7

Objective: The objective of this systematic review was to explore the effect of vitamin D supplementation on functional outcomes (motor function, mobility, activities of daily living and stroke impairment) among individuals post-stroke (PROSPERO CRD42022296462).

Data sources: MEDLINE, PsycINFO, EMBASE, and CINAHL were searched for all articles published up to March 5, 2023.

Methods: Only interventional studies assessing vitamin D supplementation compared to placebo or usual care in adult stroke patients were selected. After duplicate removal, 2912 studies were screened by two independent reviewers. A total of 43 studies underwent full text review; 10 studies met inclusion criteria (8 randomized controlled trials and 2 non-randomized studies of intervention). Data were extracted by two independent reviewers using Covidence software. Motor function (Brunnstrom Recovery Stage, Berg Balance Score), mobility (Functional Ambulation Category), activities of daily living (Barthel Index, Functional Independence Measure) and stroke impairment (modified Rankin Scale, National Institutes for Health Stroke Severity, Scandinavian Stroke Severity) were the outcome measures of interest reported in the included studies.

Results: In total, 691 patients were studied for which 11 of 13 outcome measures showed improvement with vitamin D supplementation.

Conclusions: The majority of studies showed a statistical improvement in

  • motor function,
  • mobility, and
  • stroke impairment

with vitamin D supplementation; however, the evidence did not support an improvement in activities of daily living with treatment. Despite this, there may not be clinical significance. Strong, methodologically sound, randomized controlled trials are required to verify these findings.
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VitaminDWiki – Stroke category contains

131 items in stroke category - see also Overview Stroke and vitamin D,
Overview Hypertension and Vitamin D  Overview Cardiovascular and vitamin D

Stroke more likely if low Vitamin D

Post-Stroke worse if low Vitamin D

Post-Stroke better if add Vitamin D

Post-Stroke better if Vitamin D actually gets to cells

11 studies in both categories of Depression and Stroke

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VitaminDWiki - 7 studies in both categories Stroke and Intervention (daily or non-daily)

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