Vitamin D and Number of Falls in a Long-Term Care Facility — Oak Academic Publishing
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Vitamin D and Number of Falls in a Long-Term Care Facility
Temple University School of Pharmacy, Philadelphia, PA, USA
,
Mid Atlantic PharmaTech Consultants, LLC, Ventnor City, NJ, USA
,
NEMA Research Inc., Naples FL, USA
,
Temple University School of Medicine, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, USA, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD and Georgetown University School of Medicine, Washington DC, USA
1 Temple University School of Pharmacy, Philadelphia, PA, USA
2 Mid Atlantic PharmaTech Consultants, LLC, Ventnor City, NJ, USA
3 NEMA Research Inc., Naples FL, USA
4 Temple University School of Medicine, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, USA, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD and Georgetown University School of Medicine, Washington DC, USA
Falls represent a significant contribution to the morbidity and mortality of the elderly population. Because vitamin D is important in bone physiology, the use of vitamin D to restore deficient bone and ameliorate the effects of bone fractures due to falls has become a common practice in recent years. Following introduction of widespread use, reports began to emerge that vitamin D not only aided in repair of fall-induced bone fractures, but that it also reduced the occurrence of falls. Vitamin D now has become a routine intervention as a fall- prevention measure. Early analyses found evidence of prevention efficacy (reduced falls), but recent analyses are more equivocal. We retrospectively examined the records of 350 patients in a long-term care facility in which vitamin D administration and the number of falls were recorded as part of a comprehensive database of care. We found a dramatic rise in vitamin D use over the period covered (2006 – 2011) and a corresponding dramatic decrease in the number of falls. However, the number of falls continued to decline after 2008, despite a plateau in number of patients on vitamin D, particularly females. It appears that other factors contribute to the overall decline.
KeywordsFallsBone FractureVitamin DLong-Term Care Facility
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