THURSDAY, May 21, 2026 (HealthDay News) -- Use of calcium, vitamin D, or combined supplementation has little to no effect on the prevention of fractures and falls in adults, according to a review published online May 20 in The BMJ.
Olivier Massé, Pharm.D., from CIUSSS du Nord-de-l'Île-de Montréal, and colleagues conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to examine the effect of calcium, vitamin D, or combined supplementation on fractures and falls in adults. A total of 69 trials, with 153,902 participants, were included in the review.
Most trial participants were community dwelling (87 percent) and not at high fracture or fall risk (73 percent). The researchers found that little to no effect was found from use of calcium supplements (risk ratio, 0.91), vitamin D supplements (risk ratio, 1.00), or combined supplementation (risk ratio, 0.91) for the primary outcome of any fracture. There was little to no effect on other fracture and fall outcomes seen for calcium, vitamin D, or combined supplementation, based mainly on moderate-to-high certainty of evidence. After extensive exploration of heterogeneity across multiple subgroup analyses, the findings remained robust.
"These findings do not support routine supplementation with calcium, vitamin D, or combined supplementation to prevent fractures or falls," the authors write.
Several authors disclosed ties to the pharmaceutical and medical device industries.
