Preventing fractures among older people living in institutional care: a pragmatic randomised double blind placebo controlled trial of vitamin D supplementation.

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc in this randomized controlled trial publication.

The researchers examined the effect of vitamin D supplementation on fracture rate in people living in sheltered accommodation.

Who Took Part

According to the abstract, 3,440 people were involved.

The age groups tagged for this paper are older adults, both men and women.

In a pragmatic double blind randomised controlled trial of 3 years duration, the researchers examined 3,440 people (2,624 women and 816 men) living in residential or care home.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized, double-blind and multicenter study.

Because people in this Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

Blinding on both sides kept the people and researchers unaware of who received Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc.

More than one site took part, so the people came from several places.

As a main outcome measure, the researchers used the incidence of first fracture using an intention to treat analysis.

This was a multicentre study in 314 care homes or sheltered accommodation complexes in South Wales, UK.

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Bone Density Conservation Agents, Ergocalciferols, Fractures, Bone, Homes for the Aged, Nursing Homes, Osteoporosis and Survival Analysis.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and multicenter study of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc in 3,440 people.

With several hundred people or more, it is a fairly large study for this kind of research.

Its findings take up roughly 4 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2007 (Osteoporosis international : a journal established as result of cooperation between the European Foundation for Osteoporosis and the National Osteoporosis Foundation of the USA), a journal based in England.

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