A pilot intervention to increase calcium intake in female collegiate athletes.

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Vitamin D in this randomized controlled trial publication.

Calcium intake in adolescent and young adult female athletes often is inadequate to optimize peak bone mass, an important determinant of osteoporosis risk.

Who Took Part

PubMed indexes the participants as adults, women only.

Calcium intake was evaluated using the Rapid Assessment Method, and total body and leg BMD was measured at pre-, mid-, and postseason using dual energy x-ray absorptiometry (DEXA; Hologic QDR-2000).

How the Study Was Run

The design is described as randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled and pilot.

Because people in this Vitamin D study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

Neither the participants nor the staff measuring them knew who was on Vitamin D, so expectations could not easily colour the readings.

The comparison arm used a placebo, so changes seen with Vitamin D could be set against what happens without it.

It is described as a pilot, a small early test of whether a larger Vitamin D study would be practical.

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Absorptiometry, Photon, Bone Density, Calcium, Dietary, Dietary Supplements, Exercise, Leg Bones and Patient Compliance.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Vitamin D.

The publication is from 2004 (International journal of sport nutrition and exercise metabolism), a journal based in United States.

More context: the related Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc library page, all human trials.