PLOS ONE Medicine&Health

Serum 25(OH)D levels and mortality risk among middle-aged and elderly populations in the U.S.: A prospective cohort study

by Yaowen Hu, Faliang Gao, Yuan Yang, Wei Yang, Huibo He, Jie Zhou, Yujie Zhao, Xi Chen, Wenyan Zhao, Xiaopeng He

To investigate the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency and its relationship with all-cause and cause-specific mortality among middle-aged and elderly populations in the U.S.

Data were sourced from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2001–2018. A total of 22,130 participants aged 40–70 years were included. Serum 25-hydroxy vitamin D [25(OH)D] concentrations were measured and categorized. The primary outcome was all-cause mortality, and secondary outcomes were cardiovascular disease (CVD) and cancer mortality. Multivariable-adjusted models and various statistical analyses were employed.

The prevalence of vitamin D deficiency (≤50.00 nmol/L) was 33.59%, and insufficiency (≤75.00 nmol/L) was 71.74%. For all-cause mortality, the multivariate adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) across different 25(OH)D levels (p = 0.0069, 0.59 (0.49,0.72) p p  Conclusion

This study found that higher serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations are linked to lower all-cause, cardiovascular, and cancer mortality. The relationship is nonlinear: increases in concentration reduce death risk below a certain threshold, but above it, the association weakens. Further research is needed to understand causal mechanisms.

International Wound Journal

Efficacy and safety of oral probiotic supplementation in mitigating postoperative surgical site infections in patients undergoing colorectal cancer surgery: A systematic review and meta‐analysis

Abstract

Surgical site infections (SSIs) pose significant risks to patients undergoing colorectal cancer (CRC) surgery. With increasing evidence on the benefits of oral probiotics in various clinical contexts, there is a need to assess their efficacy and safety in reducing SSIs following CRC surgery. A systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted in line with PRISMA guidelines using the PICO framework. On 19 September 2023, four major databases (PubMed, Embase, Web of Science and Cochrane Library) were searched without any temporal or language restrictions. Rigorous inclusion and exclusion criteria were employed. Data extraction was independently undertaken by two assessors, and any discrepancies were discussed. The Cochrane Collaboration's risk of bias instrument was utilized to assess study quality. The meta-analysis incorporated a fixed-effects model or random-effects model based on the I2 statistic to assess heterogeneity. The initial search yielded 1282 articles, of which 10 met the inclusion criteria and were analysed. Probiotic administration not only significantly reduced the incidence of SSIs but also curtailed the duration of hospital stays. Moreover, the subgroup analysis indicated that interventions employing multiple strains of probiotics were more effective in reducing postoperative infections than those utilizing a single strain. Probiotics effectively prevent postoperative infections and shorten hospital stays. Multi-strain probiotics outperform single strain in efficacy. Future studies should focus on their safety and optimal clinical use.