Higher but Not Lower Doses of Vitamin D Are Effective in Fracture Risk Reduction in Older Adults

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July 31, 2012

Based on the results of a pooled analysis of 11 unrelated randomized clinical trials investigating vitamin D supplementation and fracture risk in more than 31,000 older adults, Bess Dawson-Hughes, MD, director of the Bone Metabolism Laboratory at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (USDA HNRCA) at Tufts University, says higher doses of Vitamin D may be the most beneficial in reducing bone fractures in this age group.

As part of the study, published today in The New England Journal of Medicine, Dawson-Hughes and colleagues divided the subjects into quartiles ranging from 0 to 2,000 International Units (IUs) of daily vitamin D intake. In the top quartile, there was a 30% reduction in hip fracture risk and a 14% reduced risk of fracturing other bones, compared to the control groups.

“Taking between 800 IUs and 2,000 IUs of vitamin D per day significantly reduced the risk of most fractures, including hip, wrist and forearm in both men and women age 65 and older,” said Dawson-Hughes, the study’s senior author. “Importantly, we saw there was no benefit to taking Vitamin D supplements in doses below 800 IUs per day for fracture prevention.”

Nutrition

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