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Therapeutics
Randomised controlled trial
Calcium supplements may increase the risk of cardiovascular events in postmenopausal women
  1. Barbara J Boucher
  1. Centre for Diabetes, The Blizard Institute, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK
  1. Correspondence to Barbara J Boucher
    Centre for Diabetes, The Blizard Institute, 2 Newark Street, London E12AT, UK; bboucher{at}doctors.org.uk

https://doi.org/10.1136/ebm.2011.100113

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    Commentary on: Bolland MJ, Grey A, Avenell A, et al. Calcium supplements with or without vitamin D and risk of cardiovascular events: reanalysis of the Women's Health Initiative limited access dataset and meta-analysis. BMJ 2011;342:d2040.OpenUrlAbstract/FREE Full Text

    Context

    Calcium supplementation is widely used for osteoporosis (OP) prevention and treatment. Many women buy calcium supplements, ±vitamin D. The authors' earlier randomised controlled trial (RCT) and meta-analysis suggests that calcium supplementation increases cardiovascular-event risks provoked controversy, as has this report.1,–,3

    Methods

    The ‘Women’s Health Initiative Calcium/vitamin D Supplementation Study' (WHICaD) limited access data set of 36 282 community-dwelling postmenopausal women comparing calcium plus vitamin D with placebo over 7 years was re-examined for effects of personal (preprotocol) calcium usage, adjusted for other cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors, followed by meta-analysis of the data on non-personal calcium users and from eight similar studies (some data previously unpublished; …

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    Footnotes

    • Competing interests None.