Vitamin D and in-patient falls

摘要

SIR—Burleigh and colleagues [1] have shown that vitaminnD and calcium in the acute care setting does not reducenin-patient falls. There were clearly however a number of majornlimitations within the study which the authors discuss in detailnand I applaud they recognise these.nA recent BMJ systematic review found no consistentnevidence for single or multiple interventions to preventnin-patient falls [2]. Whilst there is better evidence for fallsnprevention in the community-dwelling elderly [3–5], thesenfindings are unlikely to be generalisable to the acute hospitalnsetting.Upto30%of in-patient falls occur during the first 48 hnof the patients’ stay, and in addition, 75% of in-patient fallsnoccur in the first 2 weeks [6, 7]. Therefore, patients need tonbe supported during this early phase as the effects of medicalntreatment, rehabilitation and multifaceted falls assessmentnmeasures are undertaken, and it is these measures that arenmost likely to reduce in-patient falls.