The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 276 No 7398 p498
29 April 2006

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Lack of benefit of calcium put down to poor compliance

Calcium supplementation, when used as a public health measure, does not reduce the risk of fracture in elderly women because of poor long-term compliance, say the authors of a recent study (Archives of Internal Medicine 2006;166:869).

Among the 1,460 women over the age of 70 years who took part in the trial (randomised to receive calcium carbonate 600mg twice daily or placebo), 16.1 per cent sustained one or more clinical fractures over the course of the five-year trial.

The authors found that the intervention did not effect a significant reduction in fracture risk compared with placebo (hazard ratio 0.87, 95 per cent confidence interval 0.67–1.12). However, they showed that, of the 830 women (56.8 per cent) who took 80 per cent or more of their tablets, those taking calcium had a lower risk of fracture than those taking placebo (10.2 per cent versus 15.4 per cent, hazard ratio 0.66, 95 per cent confidence interval 0.45–0.97).