An interdisciplinary knowledge translation intervention in long-term care: study protocol for the vitamin D and osteoporosis study (ViDOS) pilot cluster randomized controlled trial.

What Was Tested

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

Knowledge translation (KT) research in long-term care (LTC) is still in its early stages.

Who Took Part

Secondary outcomes include the proportion of residents prescribed calcium supplements and osteoporosis medications, and falls and fractures.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized and pilot study.

The participants were allocated by chance, so the Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc group and the comparison group should start out alike.

It is described as a pilot, a small early test of whether a larger Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc study would be practical.

The Vitamin D and Osteoporosis Study (ViDOS) is underway in 40 LTC homes (n = 19 intervention, n = 21 control) across Ontario, Canada.

The target audience within each LTC home is the Professional Advisory Committee (PAC), an interdisciplinary team who meets quarterly.

Control homes do not receive any intervention, however both intervention and control homes received educational materials as part of the Ontario Osteoporosis Strategy.

Qualitative methods will examine the experience of the LTC team with the KT intervention.

Homes are centrally randomized to intervention and control groups in blocks of variable size using a computer generated allocation sequence.

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including Bone Density Conservation Agents, Calcium, Dietary Supplements, Drug Utilization, Fractures, Bone, Homes for the Aged and Information Dissemination.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized and pilot study of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc.

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 2 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2012 (Implementation science : IS), a journal based in England.

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