Functional improvement with vitamin D replenishment in a cohort of frail, vitamin D-deficient older people.

What Was Tested

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

Who Took Part

The study group was 32 subjects.

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were older adults.

Subjects' homes and a nursing facility in Baltimore, Maryland.

The first 32 subjects (community-dwelling, homebound older subjects from the Johns Hopkins Elder Housecall Program and nursing home residents from the Johns Hopkins Geriatrics Center) entered in a longitudinal study of vitamin D replacement.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized and placebo-controlled study.

Random assignment meant chance, not the researchers, decided who got Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc and who got the comparison, which limits bias.

Some subjects received a placebo instead of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc, giving a reference point.

Baseline 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels were measured and repeated at least 1 month after therapy with either placebo or vitamin D (ergocalciferol).

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Ergocalciferols, Frail Elderly, Geriatric Assessment, Longitudinal Studies, Radioimmunoassay, Regression Analysis and Surveys and Questionnaires.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized and placebo-controlled study of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc in 32 subjects.

With fewer than 40 people, it is a small study, so it is better read as an early signal for further research than as a settled answer.

Results are reported in around 4 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 1995 (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.