High versus Moderate Dosage of Daily and Weekly Administration of Vitamin D Supplements in the Form of Oil Drop in Nursing Home Residents

Objective: To investigate the effectiveness of daily (800 IU), weekly-moderate (5600 IU) and weekly-high (8000 IU) supplementation of Vitamin D in nursing home residents. Study Design: A descriptive study. Place and Duration of Study: Nursing Home, MEVA, Istanbul, Turkey, from July 2016 to July 2017. Methodology: Nursing home residents were divided into 3 groups for supplementation of Vitamin D: Daily Dose Group (DDG), Weekly Dose Group-moderate (WDG-moderate) and Weekly Dose Group-high (WDG-high). Blood and physical performance tests were done initially to obtain a baseline value and the tests were repeated at 13th and 26th weeks of supplementation. Statistical analysis was conducted only on patients who were able to complete the 6-month-long study. Results: WDG-moderate (5600 IU/week) supplementation is found to be the most effective intervention in our study [25 (OH) D from 23.50 +/- 12.67 ng/mL to 37.38 +/- 14.42 ng/mL]. In WDG-moderate, the resulting Vitamin D level was found to reach near-optimum therapeutic levels. Only a limited increase was observed in 25 (OH) D level of DDG and WDG-high at the end of 26 weeks. Conclusion: Weekly (5600 IU/week) moderate supplementation of Vitamin D could be more beneficial than weekly (8000/week) high supplementation among nursing home residents. Multi-drug use among nursing home residents may hinder the therapeutic efficiency of Vitamin D administration. Physical performance tests may fail to demonstrate increased performance in mobility after Vitamin D administration in nursing home residents.