Research Article Vitamin D Insufficiency Is Associated with Lower Physical Function in Patients with Heart Failure and Diabetes

Copyright © 2014 M. R. Lopes et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. VitaminD deficiency is frequent among patients with heart failure (HF) and diabetes, disorders associated with exercise intolerance and muscle weakness. This study aims to search for associations between vitamin D sufficiency and physical function indexes in patients with HF and diabetes. A cross-sectional study of 146 HF patients, 39.7 % with diabetes, at a Brazilian tertiary outpatient clinic was performed. Patients underwent clinical evaluation, 6-minute walk test (6MWT), handgrip strength, physical activity level (IPAQ), and biochemical evaluations including serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D. Classification was done according to vitamin D status (≥30 ng/dL, sufficient) and presence/absence of diabetes in vitamin sufficient, no diabetes (DS-C