Vitamin D and calcium supplementation prevents severe falls in elderly community-dwelling women: a pragmatic population-based 3-year intervention study.
OBJECTIVE
We evaluated the effect of two programs for the prevention of falls leading to acute hospital admission in a population of elderly community-dwelling Danish residents.


METHODS
This was a factorial, pragmatic, intervention study. We included 9605 community-dwelling city residents aged 66+ years. We offered a prevention program consisting of a daily supplement of 1000 mg of elemental calcium as calcium carbonate and 400 IU (10 microg) of vitamin-D3 to a total of 4957 participants. The remaining 5063 participants were offered home safety inspection with dietary and health advice, or no intervention.


RESULTS
The Calcium and Vitamin D program was followed by 50.3% and the Environmental and Health Program by 46.4%. According to a multivariate analysis including age, marital status and intervention program, female residents who followed the Calcium and Vitamin D Program had a 12% risk reduction in severe falls (RR 0.88; 95% CI 0.79-0.98; p < 0.05; NNT 9).


CONCLUSIONS
The present study supports the hypothesis that vitamin D and calcium supplementation prevent falls leading to acute hospitalization in community-dwelling elderly females in a northern European region known to be deficient in vitamin D.
Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus, Denmark. erl@inet.uni2.dk
Erik Roj
ER
Larsen
Leif
L
Mosekilde
Anders
A
Foldspang
D000058:Accidental Falls / Q000517:prevention & control*; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002136:Calcium, Dietary / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D003153:Community Health Services; D019587:Dietary Supplements; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D014807:Vitamin D / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D014808:Vitamin D Deficiency / Q000150:complications
D002136:Calcium, Dietary; D014807:Vitamin D