Effects of vitamin D supplementation on disabling foot pain in patients with symptomatic knee osteoarthritis

Objectives: This study aims to determine whether vitamin D supplementation or maintaining sufficient vitamin D level reduces foot pain over two years in patients with symptomatic knee OA. Methods: A post hoc study was conducted from a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial named the VItamin D Effect on Osteoarthritis (VIDEO) study. Symptomatic knee OA patients with serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels between 12.5 nmol/L to 60 nmol/L were included and randomly allocated to either monthly vitamin D3 or placebo treatment (1:1) for 2 years. Manchester Foot Pain and Disability Index (MFPDI) was used to evaluate foot pain and Disabling foot pain was defined as at least one of the 10 functional limitation items (items 1-9,11) being documented as on 'most/every day(s)' in the last month. A repeated-measure mixed effect model was used to analyze the change of MFPDI scores between groups adjusting for potential confounders.Results: A total of 413 patients with a mean age of 63.2 years (49.7% males) were enrolled and 340 completed the study. The mean MFPDI score was 22.8±7.3, with 23.7% participants having disabling foot pain at baseline. There were significant differences in MFPDI scores change between groups over 2 years, with more improvements in vitamin D group than in placebo group (-0.03 vs. 1.30, P=0.013) and more improvement in those maintaining sufficient vitamin D levels (n=226) than those who did not (n=114) (-0.09 vs. 2.19, P=0.001). Conclusion: Vitamin D supplementation and maintenance of sufficient vitamin D levels may improve foot pain in those with knee OA

Y Chromosome, Mitochondrial DNA and Childhood Behavioural Traits

Many psychiatric traits are sexually dimorphic in terms of prevalence, age of onset, progression and prognosis; sex chromosomes could play a role in these differences. In this study we evaluated the association between Y chromosome and mitochondrial DNA haplogroups with sexually-dimorphic behavioural and psychiatric traits. The study sample included 4,211 males and 4,009 females with mitochondrial DNA haplogroups and 4,788 males with Y chromosome haplogroups who are part of the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) based in the United Kingdom. Different subsets of these populations were assessed using measures of behavioural and psychiatric traits with logistic regression being used to measure the association between haplogroups and the traits. The majority of behavioural traits in our cohort differed between males and females; however Y chromosome and mitochondrial DNA haplogroups were not associated with any of the variables. These findings suggest that if there is common variation on the Y chromosome and mitochondrial DNA associated with behavioural and psychiatric trait variation, it has a small effect.</p