AsianScientist (Jan. 8, 2018) – A team of scientists in China has revealed that supplements containing calcium, vitamin D or both did not appear to protect against hip fracture and other bone breakages in older adults. They published their findings in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Osteoporosis, or the loss of bone density, occurs in the elderly and is especially prevalent among post-menopausal women. Vitamin D and calcium supplementation are recommended to bolster bone health in older individuals.
However, in this study by researchers at Tianjin Hospital and Hebei Province Cangzhou Hospital of Integrated Traditional and Western Medicine in China, such supplementation regimes did not result in better outcomes in bone health.
The scientists analyzed data from 51,145 adults over the age of 50 who lived in their communities and not in institutions such as nursing homes and residential care facilities. The adults had participated in 33 randomized clinical trials comparing supplement use (calcium, vitamin D or both) with placebo or no treatment, and new fractures.
The researchers found that vitamin D and calcium supplementation was not associated with less risk for new fractures, regardless of the dose, the sex of the patient, their fracture history, calcium intake in their diet or baseline vitamin D blood concentrations. Hence, these findings do not support the routine use of supplements containing calcium, vitamin D, or both by older community-dwelling adults for the prevention of fracture.
The article can be found at: Zhao et al. (2017) Association Between Calcium or Vitamin D Supplementation and Fracture Incidence in Community-Dwelling Older Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.
———
Source: JAMA; Photo: Shutterstock.
Disclaimer: This article does not necessarily reflect the views of AsianScientist or its staff.
