Vitamin D and Falls in Older African American Women: The PODA Randomized Clinical Trial.

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial looks at Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc.

To determine if maintenance of serum 25(OH)D above 30 ng/mL protects against falls.

Why It Was Studied

Limited information is available on the influence of vitamin D on falls in older high-functioning black American women.

Endocrine Society guidelines propose serum 25(OH)D levels over 30 ng/mL.

Who Took Part

The study group was 260 women.

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were middle-aged adults and older adults, women only.

The Physical Performance, Osteoporosis and Vitamin D in African American Women (PODA) trial had a prospective, randomized, placebo-controlled, double-dummy design with two arms: one with placebo and one with vitamin D3 adjusted to maintain serum 25(OH)D above 30 ng/mL.

The target population was healthy black women older than 60 years with serum 25(OH)D between 8 and 26 ng/mL.

How the Study Was Run

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

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

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

The comparison arm used a placebo, so changes seen with Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc could be set against what happens without it.

The trial was 3 years in duration with a falls questionnaire administered every 3 months.

A total of 260 women entered the study, and 184 completed the 3 years.

Mean age was 68.2 years.

Research center in an academic health center.

Participants were randomly assigned to placebo or active vitamin D.

What Was Measured

Endocrine Society guidelines propose serum 25(OH)D levels over 30 ng/mL.

The subject headings attached to it are Accidental Falls, Black or African American, Biomarkers, Calcifediol, Incidence, Motor Activity and Osteoporosis.

Author keywords: polypharmacy, race and vitamin D.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc in 260 women.

Results are reported in around 7 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2019 (Journal of the American Geriatrics Society), a journal based in United States.

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