Vitamin D deficiency linked to knee arthritis in midlife women
Over five years, knee osteoarthritis developed in 40% of persistently vitamin D-deficient women past menopause, compared with 14% of women with sufficient levels.
Limit: Diet, physical activity, and sunlight exposure could partly explain the association
Edited by Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News
A five-year observational cohort study followed 420 women aged 40–60 without X-ray evidence of knee osteoarthritis, a disease that damages joints. Researchers measured blood vitamin D annually. Women with deficiency, defined as below 20 nanograms per milliliter, received 1,000–2,000 international units of oral vitamin D daily, with doses adjusted annually.
Over five years, 112 women developed osteoarthritis. Incidence reached 40% in persistently deficient women past menopause and 28% in deficient women transitioning through menopause, compared with 14% in women with sufficient levels. Women whose deficiency was corrected had 20% incidence. Sustained sufficient levels were associated with a lower rate of developing osteoarthritis after adjustment for factors including body mass index, menopausal status, physical activity and sunlight exposure.
Why it matters
Midlife women face increased risk of knee osteoarthritis. The authors recommended integrating vitamin D screening into preventive care during the menopausal transition.
Caveats
This observational study cannot establish that vitamin D supplementation prevented osteoarthritis. The findings concern women aged 40–60 without existing X-ray evidence of knee osteoarthritis, and the abstract does not report supplementation harms.
From the paper
- Result
Incidence was highest in persistently deficient postmenopausal women (40%, hazard ratio [HR]: 2.30, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.50–3.52), intermediate in perimenopausal deficient women (28%, HR: 1.60, 95% CI: 1.02–2.52), and lowest in sufficient women (14%, reference).
- Absolute difference
Sustained sufficiency yielded ARR 22.2% and NNT 4.5.
- Limitation
First, although annual monitoring captured dynamic changes in Vitamin D status, residual confounding from diet, physical activity, and sunlight exposure cannot be fully excluded.
Quoted word for word from the full text on ovid.com.
The paper
Sarojini Naidu Medical College
Journal of Mid-life Health, Oct 16, 2026, Open access, CC BY-NC-ND
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