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Large Survey Finds Average Calcium Use Too Low Among Osteoporotic Women: Presented at AACE

By John Otrompke

CHICAGO, I.L. -- May 2, 2006 -- The efficacy of bisphosphonates in women with osteoporosis may be hindered by low calcium consumption, according to a poster presented here at the annual meeting of the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE).

Adequate calcium intake for women over the age of 18 years has been determined to range between 1,000 and 1,400 mg/day, according to the Food and Nutrition Board of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences in 1997.

A 2004 analysis found that the average daily intake of calcium among women was 660 mg/day, while the Continuing Survey of Food Intake by Individuals (CFII) between 1994 and 1996 found that 90% of women over 50 years consume less than the reference 1200 mg/day, the poster said.

Researchers including Bess Dawson-Hughes, MD, director, Bone Metabolism Laboratory, Tufts University, Boston, Massachusetts, United States, conducted a survey of 498 households in which women filed a prescription for bisphosphonates (either Fosamax or Actonel) during a 1-year period and at least once during the prior year.

The households were part of a national cohort of 70,000 households that scan all their bar-coded purchases at home, the poster said. The data scanned included the brand of the calcium-containing product (such as Tums), calcium content and total tablet count.

The accuracy of this large study was also strengthened by the fact that the purchases were roughly confirmed by a general comparison to store level scanner data for bisphosphonate purchases.

The survey found that 40% of bisphosphonate users did not purchase any calcium during the survey year, and that 73% of the households did not purchase enough calcium supplements for 1 person in the household to take 1 tablet every day, the poster said.

Only 1 in 4 subjects who are taking bisphosphonates purchased enough calcium to take 1 tablet a day, the survey found.

Increasing the calcium intake of these patients is likely to improve the efficacy of bisphosphonate therapy in reducing the incidence of fractures among osteoporotic women, the researchers said.


[Presentation title: One in Four Patients Do Not Purchase Enough Calcium to Achieve Adequate Supplementation. Poster 238]

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