Context: Nutritional prevention of bone deterioration with fortified foods seems particularly suitable in institutionalized elderly women at risk of vitamin D deficiency, secondary hyperparathyroidism, increased bone resorption, and osteoporotic fracture.
Objective: The objective was to evaluate whether fortification of yogurts with vitamin D and calcium exerts an additional lowering effect on serum PTH and bone resorption markers as compared with isocaloric and isoprotein dairy products in elderly women.
Design: A randomized double-blind controlled-trial, 56-day intervention was conducted in institutionalized women (mean age 85.5 years) consuming 2 125-g servings of either vitamin D- and calcium-fortified yogurt (FY) at supplemental levels of 10 μg/d vitamin D₃ and 800 mg/d calcium or nonfortified control yogurt (CY) providing 280 mg/d calcium.
Main outcomes: The endpoints were serum changes from baseline (day 0) to day 28 and day 56 in 25-hydroxyvitamin-D (25OHD), PTH, and bone resorption markers tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase isoform-5b (TRAP5b), the primary outcome, and carboxyl-terminal cross-linked telopeptide of type I collagen (CTX).
Results: At day 56, serum 25OHD increased (mean ± SEM) by 25.3 ± 1.8 vs 5.2 ± 2.5 nmol/L in FY (n = 29) and CY (n = 27), respectively (P < .0001). The corresponding changes in PTH were -28.6% ± 7.2% vs -8.0% ± 4.3% (P = .0003); in TRAP5b, -21.9% ± 4.3% vs 3.0% ± 3.2% (P < .0001); and in CTX, -11.0% ± 9.7% vs -3.0% ± 4.1% (P = .0146), in FY and CY, respectively. At day 28, these differences were less pronounced but already significant for 25OHD, PTH, and TRAP5b.
Conclusions: This study in institutionalized elderly at high risk for osteoporotic fracture suggests that fortification of dairy products with vitamin D₃ and calcium provides a greater prevention of accelerated bone resorption as compared with nonfortified equivalent foods.