Background: Depressive symptoms commonly co-occur with cognitive decline in older adults. However, prospective interrelationships between different cognitive function domains and depressive symptoms are not well understood. This study evaluated prospective interrelationships between depressive symptoms and cognitive functioning components among individuals aged 50 years or older from a perspective of network analysis.

Background: Potential calcium-related adverse events of vitamin D supplement use have not been addressed in large-scale, real-world data so far. Methods: Leveraging data from the UK Biobank, encompassing 445,493 individuals aged 40–69, we examined associations of high 25-hydroxyvitamin (25(OH)D) levels ≥ 100 nmol/L and vitamin D supplementation with hypercalcemia (serum calcium > 2.6 mmol/L), kidney stones, and atherosclerosis assessments (pulse wave arterial stiffness index and carotid intima-medial thickness). Regression models were comprehensively adjusted for 49 covariates. Results: Approximately 1.5% of the participants had high 25(OH)D levels, 4.3% regularly used vitamin D supplements, and 20.4% reported regular multivitamin use. At baseline, the hypercalcemia prevalence was 1.6%, and 1.1% was diagnosed with kidney stones during follow-up. High 25(OH)D levels were neither associated with calcium-related adverse events nor atherosclerosis assessments. Vitamin D and multivitamin supplementation were associated with an increased prevalence of hypercalcemia (odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals: 1.46 [1.32–1.62] and 1.11 [1.04–1.18], respectively) but were neither associated with atherosclerosis nor future kidney stones. Conclusions: High 25(OH)D levels observable in routine care were not associated with any adverse outcome. Vitamin D users have a slightly higher prevalence of hypercalcemia, possibly due to co-supplementation with calcium, but without a higher atherosclerosis prevalence or risk of kidney stones.

Background: Depressive and insomnia symptoms are common among older adults with chronic pain. We aimed to examine different chronic pain trajectories of older adults over an 8‐year observation period and explore the network structures of depression and insomnia in each chronic pain group. Methods: The trajectories of pain in the USA‐based Health and Retirement Study (HRS) data from 2010 to 2018 were examined using latent class growth analyses (LCGA) method. Depressive and insomnia symptoms were measured with the eight‐item version of the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression (CESD‐8) Scale and the four‐item Jenkins Sleep Scale (JSS‐4), respectively. Network models were constructed using the Ising model. Central symptoms and bridge symptoms were identified via expectedInfluence (EI) and bridge EI, respectively. Results: A total of 11,132 older adults were included in the trajectory analysis, with three chronic pain trajectories identified, including “severe pain trajectory,” “moderate pain trajectory,” and “non or mild pain trajectory”. From these trajectories, “Lack of happiness” (CESD4), “Feeling depressed” (CESD1), and “Feeling sad” (CESD7) emerged as the most central symptoms, while “Feeling tired in the morning” (JSS4) was identified as the key bridge symptom. However, the findings may not be generalizable to other parts of the world outside the USA. Conclusion: Older adults with different chronic pain trajectories exhibited similar depression and insomnia network structure. Implementing timely interventions that target central and bridge symptoms might mitigate the co‐occurrence of depression and insomnia in this population.

Longitudinal studies assessing the association of vitamin D deficiency, defined by serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels < 30 nmol/L, and vitamin D supplement (VDS) use with low back pain (LBP) are sparse. This investigation assessed the cross-sectional and longitudinal association of vitamin D status and VDS use with LBP among 135,934 participants from the UK Biobank cohort. Approximately 21.6% of the participants had vitamin D deficiency, while only 4% regularly took VDS. In the month before study enrollment, 3.8% of the population reported experiencing LBP. An additional 3.3% of the population were diagnosed with LBP by their general practitioners for the first time during a median follow-up of 8.5 years. Vitamin D deficiency and VDS use were cross-sectionally associated with LBP in age- and sex-adjusted models, but these associations were not evident in comprehensively adjusted models. In longitudinal analyses, both vitamin D deficiency and VDS use were not associated with LBP in any model after correction for multiple testing. In conclusion, not unexpectedly due to the fact that LBP is multifactorial, our findings provide no evidence for the role of the vitamin D status in the etiology of LBP.