Association between Serum 25-Hydroxyvitamin D Level and Cognitive Impairment in Patients with White Matter Lesions: A Cross-Sectional Study

Objectives: We aimed to observe the relationship between serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25-[OH] D) and different cognitive domains, and to evaluate the predictive value of 25-(OH) D level for cognitive impairment in patients with white matter lesions (WML). Methods: The differences in clinical data including 25-(OH) D were analyzed between cognitive normality ( n = 87) and impairment ( n = 139) groups, and variant cognitive domains were analyzed between groups of different levels of serum 25-(OH) D. Risk factors for cognitive impairments were evaluated with multivariate logistic regression analysis; a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve of 25-(OH) D levels was used to examine the association between 25-(OH) D and WML with cognitive dysfunction. Results: As the severity of WML increased, the proportion of patients with a low level of serum 25-(OH) D increased ( p < 0.05). The total MoCA (Montreal Cognitive Assessment) scores and all domain scores except naming were significantly lower in patients with low levels of serum 25-(OH) D than in patients with high levels of serum 25-(OH) D ( p < 0.05). Multivariate logistic regression analyses showed that serum 25-(OH) D levels were independently correlated with cognitive impairment. In the ROC analysis, the optimal cut-off value for 25-(OH) D was 17.53 with 76% sensitivity and 70% specificity (AUC = 0.751, 95% CI: 0.674–0.819, p < 0.05). Conclusion: We observed that vitamin D deficiency is associated with multiple areas of cognitive impairment and that it is an independent risk factor for cognitive impairment in WML.