Vitamin D and calcium supplements no help with brittle bone fractures: Lancet (AFP)

PARIS (AFP) - Giving calcium and vitamin D dietary supplements to elderly people with brittle bones does not prevent them suffering fractures, a study by the British medical journal The Lancet said in a report.

Vitamin D deficiency is often regarded as one of the chief causes of fractures suffered by elderly people with osteoporosis and the vitamin and calcium are often preventatively prescribed.

But a team led by Professor Adrian Grant of Aberdeen University in Scotland found little evidence to support the theory.

The study looked at 5,300 people, 85 percent of them women, aged over 70 who had suffered from osteoporosis-related fractures in the last 10 years and ran a high risk of further fractures.

They were divided into four groups which took vitamin D only, or calcium only, or both the vitamin and the calcium or a placebo.

In the five years of the study 13 percent suffered a new fracture, in a quarter of the cases breaking a hip. But it made virtually no difference whether they were taking one supplement, or both, or neither.

However two years into the study only a little over half (55 percent) of those initially taking part were still taking their pills. Over a third (36 percent) had given up the tablets because they gave them digestion problems while nine percent had died.

Australian specialist Philip Sanmbrooke of Sydney's Royal North Shore hospital said the low compliance rate of the patients cast doubt on the findings.