Association of serum 25-hydroxy vitamin D with gait speed and handgrip strength in patients on hemodialysis

BACKGROUND: Muscle dysfunction is prevalent in dialysis patients. Gait speed and handgrip strength are simple and reliable methods of assessing muscle function. Numerous observational studies have linked 25-hydroxy vitamin D[25(OH)D] status with gait speed and handgrip strength in populations without kidney diseases. This study aimed to evaluate the potential associations of 25(OH)D status with gait speed and handgrip strength in patients on hemodialysis. METHODS: In this observational cross-sectional study, demographic data, biological data, and dialysis parameters were collected. Gait speed and handgrip strength were measured. Multiple linear regression and logistic regression analysis were used to investigate the relationship of 25(OH)D status with gait speed and handgrip strength after adjusting for potential confounders. RESULTS: Overall, a total of 118 participants undergoing hemodialysis were included. Seventy-one (60.2%) participants were male. The median 25(OH)D status in participants was 11.58 (interquartile range: 8.51 to 15.41) ng/ml. When controlling for age, gender, dialysis vintage, and other confounders with a p-value < 0.15 in univariate analyses, 25(OH)D was significantly positively associated with gait speed (β = 0.16, 95% CI 0.05 to 0.28, p = 0.006) and handgrip strength (β = 3.83, 95% CI 1.09 to 6.56, p = 0.007). CONCLUSION: Our study showed that 25(OH)D status seemed to be associated with gait speed and handgrip strength in patients on hemodialysis. However, these results were not robust. The relationships between 25(OH)D status and gait speed and handgrip should be further explored. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12882-022-02973-7.