Effect of Vitamin K2 on Postural Sway in Older People Who Fall: A Randomized Controlled Trial

What Was Tested

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

Vitamin K is thought to be involved in both bone health and maintenance of neuromuscular function.

The researchers tested the effect of vitamin K2 supplementation on postural sway, falls, healthcare costs, and indices of physical function in older people at risk of falls.

Who Took Part

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were older adults, both men and women.

A total of 95 community-dwelling participants aged 65 and older with at least two falls, or one injurious fall, in the previous year.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled and parallel-group study.

The participants 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 participants and researchers unaware of who received Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc.

A placebo (an inactive look-alike) gave the Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc group a baseline to be compared against.

Groups ran in parallel: each of the participants stayed in one arm throughout.

Parallel-group double-blind randomized placebo-controlled trial.

Fourteen primary care practices in Scotland, UK.

The primary outcome was anteroposterior sway measured using sway plates at 12 months, adjusted for baseline.

Secondary outcomes included the Short Physical Performance Battery, Berg Balance Scale, Timed Up & Go Test, quality of life, health and social care costs, falls, and adverse events.

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including Accidental Falls, Postural Balance, Vitamin K 2 and Vitamins.

Author keywords: health economic analysis, postural sway and recruitment.

What This Means in Plain Language

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

Its findings take up roughly 8 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read 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.