Vitamin D plus calcium curbs falls in older women

Last Updated: 2006-03-01 14:37:28 -0400 (Reuters Health)

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Long-term dietary supplementation with vitamin D and calcium significantly reduces the risk of falling among older women, according to the results of a new study.

Dr. Heike A. Bischoff-Ferrari, at the University Hospital Zurich, Switzerland, and colleagues assigned 199 men and 246 women to take either vitamin D and calcium daily or placebo.

The subjects were at least 65 years of age (average, about 71 years) and lived at home.

During follow-up over 3 years, 49 percent of the men and 55 percent of the women experienced falls, according to results published in the Archives of Internal Medicine. Of the 231 total falls, 107 occurred in the vitamin D-calcium group and 124 occurred in the placebo group.

On analysis of the data, the researchers found vitamin D-calcium supplementation, compared with placebo, was not associated with an overall lower risk of falling in the total group of subjects.

However, among women, vitamin D and calcium did significantly reduce the risk of falls by 46 percent. No significant reduction was seen in men.

One explanation may be that "ambulatory women have lower muscle strength and an increased susceptibility to falls than ambulatory men," Bischoff-Ferrari and colleagues suggest. "Only among less active men who stayed on treatment could a possible benefit not be excluded," they note. "However, this result was not significant."

SOURCE: Archives of Internal Medicine, February 27, 2006.