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Vitamin D and femoral neck fractures in elderly South Australian women
Author(s) -
Morris Howard A.,
Morrison Gordon W.,
Burr Michael,
Thomas David W.,
Nordin B.E. Christopher
Publication year - 1984
Publication title -
medical journal of australia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.904
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1326-5377
pISSN - 0025-729X
DOI - 10.5694/j.1326-5377.1984.tb108222.x
Subject(s) - medicine , femoral neck , nursing homes , vitamin d and neurology , vitamin d deficiency , vitamin , surgery , osteoporosis , nursing
The vitamin D status of women with femoral neck fractures and of male and female nursing‐home residents in South Australia was assessed and compared with that of ambulant normal elderly women and young male and female controls. Serum 25‐hydroxyvitamin D (250HD) was assayed with a competitive protein‐binding method including a chromatography step. The mean serum 250HD levels in the patients with femoral neck fractures (39.2 [SE 2.6] nmol/L) and in the nursing‐home residents (28.9 [SE 1.3] nmol/L) were significantly lower than those in the ambulant elderly women (67.6 [SE 3.9] nmol/L) and young controls (76.9 [SE 3.7] nmol/L) ( P <0.001 in each case). The serum 250HD levels were unrelated to age in the normal ambulant subjects. There was a significant seasonal variation in the results of routine 250HD assays performed in our laboratory, but no such variation was seen in the nursing‐home residents. We conclude that vitamin D deficiency is common in housebound subjects, and that femoral neck fractures occur mainly in subjects who were housebound before the fracture.