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Vitamin D and calcium supplementation prevents severe falls in elderly community-dwelling women: a pragmatic population-based 3-year intervention study

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Abstract

Background and aims: 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 μg) 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.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Aarhus University Hospital, DK-8000, Aarhus C, Denmark

    Erik Roj Larsen MD, PhD & Leif Mosekilde

  2. Institute of Epidemiology and Social Medicine, University of Aarhus, Aarhus, Denmark

    Anders Foldspang

Authors
  1. Erik Roj Larsen MD, PhD
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  2. Leif Mosekilde
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  3. Anders Foldspang
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Correspondence to Erik Roj Larsen MD, PhD.

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Larsen, E.R., Mosekilde, L. & Foldspang, A. Vitamin D and calcium supplementation prevents severe falls in elderly community-dwelling women: a pragmatic population-based 3-year intervention study. Aging Clin Exp Res 17, 125–132 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03324585

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03324585

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