Vitamin D injection fails to prevent fractures in elderly people

The finding is the result of a four-year long study in which scientists from the MRC Epidemiology Resource Centre at the University of Southampton compared the number of bone fractures experienced by elderly people who received a vitamin D injection with those of men and women who were given a placebo. They found no change in the rate of hip, wrist or other non-vertebral fractures between the two groups.

The study is published online by the journal Rheumatology and will appear in the journal's December issue.

The clinical trial involved 9,440 men and women aged over 75 living in the Wessex region. Vitamin D deficiency is common amongst elderly people and is thought to contribute to the risk of osteoporotic fractures – bones broken as they are weakened by osteoporosis. The injection of vitamin D, or placebo, was given at the same time as people received their annual flu vaccine. The study aimed to determine whether giving a vitamin D injection to the elderly at the same time would help to protect them against osteoporotic fractures.

'Unfortunately the results suggest that giving vitamin D in the form of an injection doesn't appear to be beneficial to older people,' commented Professor Cyrus Cooper, leader of the research team, Professor of Rheumatology and Director of the MRC Epidemiology Resource Centre at Southampton.

He continued: 'This is one of the largest studies of its kind and we have demonstrated quite conclusively that an annual intramuscular injection of vitamin D, given in association with influenza vaccination, is not effective at reducing fractures caused by osteoporosis among elderly people living in southern England.

'Although encouraging findings were obtained from a smaller European study, our results suggest that a programme of vitamin D injections would not be a justifiable use of stretched health care resources. Although vitamin D insufficiency is common among older people, the most effective means of correcting this would be by combined oral daily calcium and vitamin D supplements.'