Impact of Vitamin D Supplementation on Falls and Fractures – a Critical Appraisal of the Quality of the Evidence and an Overview of the available guidelines
Bone, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bone.2019.115112
Marlene Chakhtoura 1 Nariman Chamoun 1 Maya Rahme 1v GhadaEl-Hajj Fuleihan 1
- Vitamin D and fractures – 24 meta-analyses and counting – Dec 2014
- Calcium by itself does not reduce risk of fractures (shown yet again) – Oct 2019
- Fractures reduced by monthly 30,000 IU of Vitamin D, perhaps 100,000 IU would be better – July 2019
- Fracture risk reduced somewhat by 800 IU of vitamin D and Calcium – meta-analysis Oct 2015
- Vitamin D and Calcium cost-effectively reduce falls and fractures – April 2019
- Hip fractures reduced 2X to 6X with just 10 minutes of sunlight daily – RCT 2003-2010
- Far more benefit from 10 minutes of sunshine than 800 IU of vitamin D
- Vitamin K (any amount and any kind) reduced bone fractures by 24 percent – meta-analysis – May 2019
Falls and Fractures category contains the following
257 items in FALLS and FRACTURES - Vitamin D and Calcium cost-effectively reduce falls and fractures – April 2019
- see also Overview Seniors and Vitamin D
Falls
- Fall prevention - Vitamin D is one of the ways - umbrella review Jan 2024
- Deaths due to falls doubled in just a decade (age-adjusted, perhaps decreased vitamin D) – June 2019
- Preventing Falls in Older Adults – Vitamin D combination is the best - JAMA Meta-analysis Nov 2017
- Falls cut in half by 100,000 IU vitamin D monthly - RCT 2016
- Falls reduced by a third if achieved 40 ng level vitamin D– RCT Sept 2018
- Note: It took 6 months to get to that level. Most trials last only 3 months
- Vitamin D prevents falls – majority of meta-analyses conclude – meta-meta analysis Feb 2015
- Falls reduced by Vitamin D: 13 percent reduction if more than 700 IU – review of 38 trials – Aug 2022
Fracture
- Hip fractures are predicted by 10 factors – low Vitamin D is the biggest – Aug 2023
- Vitamin D and fractures – 24 meta-analyses and counting – Dec 2014
- Low trauma bone fractures in seniors – considering Vitamin D loading dose for all, without testing – Nov 2019
- Vitamin K (any amount and any kind) reduced bone fractures by 24 percent – meta-analysis – May 2019
- 75+ Hip fracture items in VitaminDWiki title Click here for details
Highlights- The effect of vitamin D supplementation, with or without calcium, on falls is inconsistent.
- Vitamin D and calcium (CaD) does not reduce fracture risk in community dwelling subjects.
- CaD reduces hip fracture by 16-33% in studies from all residencies combined.
- The evidence on vitamin D effects on skeletal outcomes has major challenges.
- Only rigorous high quality meta-analyses of homogenous studies can yield final conclusions.
Introduction
The beneficial effect of vitamin D supplementation on musculo-skeletal outcomes have been recently questioned and recommendations regarding supplementation vary widely. The aim of this paper is to systematically assess the quality of the evidence evaluating the effect of vitamin D supplementation on falls and fractures.Methods
We conducted a systematic search in Medline, PubMed, and Embase and selected systematic reviews (SRs) / meta-analyses (MAs) of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on vitamin D supplementation and falls or fracture, published between 2012 - 2018. We identified 5 MAs of RCTs on falls, 4 on fractures and 4 on both outcomes. We applied the critical appraisal tool “A MeaSurement Tool to Assess systematic Reviews” – AMSTAR- to assess the quality of the identified MAs.Results
Vitamin D and calcium supplementation (CaD), compared to calcium only or placebo, may reduce the risk of falls, in institutionalized individuals and/or those from the community, but the data is inconsistent. The largest and most consistent evidence for a protective effect of CaD, compared to placebo or control, is in reducing the risk of hip fracture, by 16-33%, and any fracture, by 5-19%. This effect was demonstrated when combining trials in community-dwelling and institutionalized individuals, potentially driven by data from institutionalized individuals as shown in 3 SRs/MAs. Major limitations to the quality of the evidence include variability in the methodology of MAs, but more importantly, differences between trials in terms of subjects’ characteristics, vitamin D regimens, outcome definition and ascertainment, risk of bias, trial duration and/or low power. The quality of the included MAs was moderate to critically low.Conclusions
While the effect on falls is inconsistent, CaD reduces the risk of fracture (hip and any fracture), as shown in meta-analyses pooling data of studies combining institutionalized and community individuals. The evidence is however limited by major shortcomings and heterogeneity.Hip fractures reduced 16 to 33 percent by any amount of Vitamin D and Calcium – Oct 20193689 visitors, last modified 05 Nov, 2019, This page is in the following categories (# of items in each category)