Vitamin D3 Supplementation and Stress Fracture Occurrence in High-Risk Collegiate Athletes

January 3, 2018 updated by: Prisma Health-Midlands

The main objective of this study is to find a correlation between vitamin D deficiency and stress fracture occurrences in athletes who participate in high-risk activities. These high-risk athletes undergo elevated bone turnover, which requires adequate levels of vitamin D in order to support bone health. It is hypothesized that providing supplemental treatment to athletes showing lower than normal serum vitamin D levels will decrease the occurrence of stress fractures. By recording the dates and specific occurrences of fractures, it may be possible to correlate injury rates with seasons, providing more supportive data to pre-existing literature.

This area of research is lacking in the quantity of prospective studies. Previous studies primarily focus on adolescent, elder, or military recruit populations. While literature has shown that vitamin D plays an important role in bone health, there are no previous studies that directly examine vitamin D deficiency and supplemental treatment in conditioned collegiate athlete populations. This study will add to the existing knowledge and will provide a more specific analysis for athletes.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

This study will focus on athletes who are at a higher risk of lower extremity stress fractures. Specifically, this study will be looking at male and female athletes on the track, cross-country, soccer, and basketball teams at the University of South Carolina. During the pre-season physical of each student athlete, serum vitamin D levels will be taken and recorded. There will be a certified nurse to draw the blood samples. This will take place at the University of South Carolina Athletic Department and/or the Palmetto Health Lab at 2 Medical Park. Potentially, every athlete of the given teams will be enrolled in the study unless they choose not to. Only subjects showing concentrations below 30 ng/mL, which is indicative of insufficient or deficient levels, will be provided supplemental treatment of 25-(OH) vitamin D. Every enrolled subject will be monitored for injury throughout the season. Any and all injuries will be positively identified, and any confirmed stress fractures will be recorded. Data from prospective seasons will be compared to an incidence percentage of athletes from previous seasons. Previous athletes did not receive any vitamin D treatment. These will be used as a control to determine if treatment affected the occurrence of stress fractures. All physicals and tests will be performed at the University of South Carolina Sports Medicine clinic by the sports medicine staff.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

118

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Child
  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Athlete on one of the following teams at local University: Men/Women Track and Field, Soccer, Basketball, and Women's Cross Country.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Athlete currently diagnosed with a stress fracture
  • Athlete recovering from a lower extremity musculoskeletal injury

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Non-Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Treatment: Cholecalciferol (Vitamin D3)
Athletes with Vitamin D levels lower than 30ng/mL will be treated with the supplement for eight weeks.
Supplementation of subjects who meet the inclusion criteria and test to have below the threshold of vitamin D in their blood.
No Intervention: Prospective Control Group
Athletes with Vitamin D levels higher than 30ng/mL were enrolled and compared but not treated.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Incidence and prevalence of stress fractures in athlete cohorts
Time Frame: 5 Years
To compare the incidence and prevalence of student athletes experiencing stress fractures during the 2015-16 academic year with the five previous years of reported data.
5 Years

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: J. Benjamin Jackson III, MD, Prisma Health-Midlands

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

November 30, 2015

Primary Completion (Actual)

July 1, 2016

Study Completion (Actual)

July 1, 2016

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

December 22, 2017

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 3, 2018

First Posted (Actual)

January 10, 2018

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

January 10, 2018

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 3, 2018

Last Verified

January 1, 2018

More Information

Terms related to this study

Other Study ID Numbers

  • Pro00048420

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

No

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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