Calcium and Vitamin D Supplementation Decreases Incidence of Stress Fractures in Female Navy Recruits

March 24, 2015 updated by: Creighton University

We conducted a double-blind, placebo-controlled randomized clinical trial of calcium and vitamin D supplementation in 5201 female Naval recruits. During 8 weeks of basic training, supplementation with 2000 mg calcium and 800 IU vitamin D/day decreased incidence of stress fracture by 25%. The hypothesis was:

Supplementation with calcium 2000 mg/d and vitamin D 800 IU/d will significantly reduce the incidence of stress fractures in female Navy recruits during 8 weeks of basic training.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Introduction: Stress fractures (SFx) are one of the most common and debilitating overuse injuries seen in military recruits, and they are also problematic for non-military athletic populations. The goal of this randomized double-blind, placebo-controlled study was to determine if a calcium and vitamin D intervention could reduce the incidence of SFx in female recruits during basic training.

Methods: We recruited 5201 female Navy recruit volunteers and randomized them to a 2000 mg calcium and 800 IU vitamin D supplement/day or placebo. SFx were ascertained when recruits reported to the Great Lakes clinic with symptoms. All SFx were confirmed with radiography or technetium scan according to the usual Navy protocol.

Results: A total of 309 subjects were diagnosed with a SFx resulting in an incidence of 5.9% per eight weeks. Using "intention-to-treat" analysis by including all enrolled subjects, Fisher's Exact test found that the calcium and vitamin D group had a 25% lower incidence of SFx than the control group (6.6% vs 5.3%, respectively, p=0.03). The per protocol analysis, including only the 3700 recruits who completed the study, found a 27% lower incidence of fractures in the supplemented vs the control group (8.6% vs 6.8%, respectively, p=0.02).

Conclusions: Generalizing the findings to the population of 14,416 females who entered basic training at the Great Lakes during the 24 months of recruitment, calcium and vitamin D supplementation for the entire cohort would have prevented about 130 persons per year from fracturing. Such a decrease in SFx would be associated with a significant decrease in morbidity and financial costs.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

5201

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Nebraska
      • Omaha, Nebraska, United States, 68131
        • Creighton University

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

Yes

Genders Eligible for Study

Female

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Female entering basic recruit training at the Great Lakes Naval Station

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: Prevention
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Triple

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Active Comparator: Calcium
Daily calcium supplementation Intervention: Calcium 2000mg / daily
Dietary supplement: Calcium & Vitamin D
Calcium 2000mg / daily Vitamin D 800IU / daily
Experimental: Vitamin D
Daily Calcium and Vitamin D supplementation Intervention: Vitamin D 800IU / daily
Dietary supplement: Calcium & Vitamin D
Calcium 2000mg / daily Vitamin D 800IU / daily

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
individuals with stress fracture
Time Frame: one year
one year

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Creighton University

Collaborators

GlaxoSmithKline
United States Department of Defense

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Joan M Lappe, Ph.D., Creighton University

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

May 1, 2002

Study Completion (Actual)

March 1, 2006

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

May 18, 2007

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

May 21, 2007

First Posted (Estimate)

May 22, 2007

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

March 25, 2015

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 24, 2015

Last Verified

August 1, 2008

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • DAMD-17-01-1-0807

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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