Effects of calcium and vitamin D supplementation on hip bone mineral density and calcium-related analytes in elderly ambulatory Australian women: a five-year randomized controlled trial.

Study answer

What this study found

Overall, adding vitamin D to calcium produced the most durable benefit, with no bone loss at the hip over 5 years and evidence of reduced bone turnover. Hip bone mineral density was maintained versus control at year 1 in both the calcium group (1.5 Ϯ 0.5%, P ϭ 0.007) and the calcium plus vitamin D group (1.2 Ϯ 0.6%, P ϭ 0.04), but only the calcium plus vitamin D group retained benefit at years 3 and 5 (2.8 Ϯ 1.1%, P ϭ 0.01; 2.2 Ϯ 1.1%, P ϭ 0.05). The calcium plus vitamin D group also had lower alkaline phosphatase at year 1, 3, and 5 (11.3 Ϯ 2.9%, P Ͻ 0.001; 8.7 Ϯ 3.9%, P ϭ 0.03; 11.3 Ϯ…

Study & population

Five-year randomized controlled trial in community-dwelling ambulant women aged 70 to 80 years in Perth, Western Australia, who were not receiving bone-active medications.

Intervention

Active supplementation consisted of calcium carbonate 600 mg twice daily with food for 5 years.

Key limitation

Arm sizes were modest (Ca N = 40, CaD N = 39, control N = 41), which limits precision and power for subgroup and biomarker analyses.

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Original abstract