TITLE:
Vitamin D and Number of Falls in a Long-Term Care Facility
AUTHORS:
Robert B. Raffa, Frank Breve, Robert Taylor Jr., Joseph V. Pergolizzi Jr.
KEYWORDS:
Falls; Bone Fracture; Vitamin D; Long-Term Care Facility
JOURNAL NAME:
Pharmacology & Pharmacy,
Vol.3 No.4,
October
29,
2012
ABSTRACT: 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.