Vitamin D
This work has established that falls are an important consequence of vitamin D deficiency in long term care settings and that vitamin D replacement therapy can reduce the incidence of falls, as well as fractures, in these settings. Royal Freemasons has been one of the principal collaborating organisations involved in this research which was led by Professor John Wark at the University of Melbourne and Professor Leon Flicker at the University of Western Australia.
Vitamin D is produced in the skin by the action of sunlight and deficiency has long been known to cause defective bone growth and rickets in childhood, and bone disease and muscle weakness in severe cases in adults. A French study published in 1992 indicated that vitamin D supplements protected nursing home residents against fractures. One of the key aims of our research program was to test a theory that vitamin D deficiency in frail older people causes poor muscle and nerve function leading to falls, in addition to weakening bones.
In 1999 our group published one of the first pieces of scientific evidence that there was in fact a retrospective relationship between recent falls and low blood levels of vitamin D among residents.
In 2003 we were able to report scientifically stronger evidence that low vitamin D blood levels predict the likelihood of falls from an analysis of data from more than 1500 Australian residents including people from Royal Freemasons. Based on 2 years of follow up of 625 residents from 60 hostels and 89 nursing homes in 3 states, our final paper provided the strongest scientific evidence to date that vitamin D supplementation prevents falls as well as fractures in this population. These and other reports of this major study have been published in leading scientific and professional journals and are widely quoted nationally and internationally, contributing significantly to beneficial changes in clinical practice.
Key publications related to vitamin D research
Stein MS, Wark JD, Scherer SC, et al. Falls relate to vitamin D and parathyroid hormone in an Australian nursing home and hostel. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. 1999.47: 1195-1201.
Flicker L, Mead K, MacInnis R, Nowson C, Scherer S, Stein M, Thomas J, Hopper J, Wark J. Serum Vitamin D and Falls in Older Women in Residential Care in Australia. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. 2003. 51: 1533-153.
Flicker L, MacInnis RJ, Stein MS, Scherer SC, Mead KE, Nowson CA, Thomas J, Lowndes C, Hopper JL, Wark JD. Should Older People in Residential Care Receive Vitamin D to Prevent Falls? Results of a Randomized Trial. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. 2005. 53: 11. 1881-1888. 2005.
