CONTEXT:

Vitamin D or calcium supplementation may have effects on vascular disease and cancer.

OBJECTIVE:

Our objective was to investigate whether vitamin D or calcium supplementation affects mortality, vascular disease, and cancer in older people.

DESIGN AND SETTING:

The study included long-term follow-up of participants in a two by two factorial, randomized controlled trial from 21 orthopedic centers in the United Kingdom.

PARTICIPANTS:

Participants were 5292 people (85% women) aged at least 70 yr with previous low-trauma fracture.

INTERVENTIONS:

Participants were randomly allocated to daily vitamin D(3) (800 IU), calcium (1000 mg), both, or placebo for 24-62 months, with a follow-up of 3 yr after intervention.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES:

All-cause mortality, vascular disease mortality, cancer mortality, and cancer incidence were evaluated.

RESULTS:

In intention-to-treat analyses, mortality [hazard ratio (HR) = 0.93; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.85-1.02], vascular disease mortality (HR = 0.91; 95% CI = 0.79-1.05), cancer mortality (HR = 0.85; 95% CI = 0.68-1.06), and cancer incidence (HR = 1.07; 95% CI = 0.92-1.25) did not differ significantly between participants allocated vitamin D and those not. All-cause mortality (HR = 1.03; 95% CI = 0.94-1.13), vascular disease mortality (HR = 1.07; 95% CI = 0.92-1.24), cancer mortality (HR = 1.13; 95% CI = 0.91-1.40), and cancer incidence (HR = 1.06; 95% CI = 0.91-1.23) also did not differ significantly between participants allocated calcium and those not. In a post hoc statistical analysis adjusting for compliance, thus with fewer participants, trends for reduced mortality with vitamin D and increased mortality with calcium were accentuated, although all results remain nonsignificant.

CONCLUSIONS:

Daily vitamin D or calcium supplementation did not affect mortality, vascular disease, cancer mortality, or cancer incidence.