NEW YORK - VITAMIN D2 supplements plus calcium may lower the risk of falls among older women who have a high risk of falling, according to a year-long clinical study conducted in Perth, Australia.

Elderly women who are at risk of falling can benefit from extra vitamin D and calcium to reduce their risk by 63 per cent to 53 per cent a year - 'a drop of about 20 per cent', said Dr Richard L. Prince, of University of Western Australia, Perth, and the Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, Nedlands.

'In addition, they can expect that this treatment will reduce their fracture risk by about 20 per cent over five years...a big health benefit for a small change in diet,' he added.

They studied the impact of vitamin D2 supplementation in 302 women ages 70 to 90 years who had a history of falling.

Both groups received 1,000 milligrams calcium citrate daily.

Because exposure to the sun boosts vitamin D levels and this study was conducted in sunny Perth, the researchers selected women with blood vitamin D levels below average for the area, they explain. Half of the women took 1,000 international units of vitamin D2 (ergocalciferol) daily and half took a matching placebo.

Over the course of 12 months, 80 women (53 per cent) in the vitamin D2 group fell at least once compared with 95 women (63 per cent) in the control group. After taking into account height, which affected the risk of falling and was significantly different between the two groups, vitamin D2 supplementation lowered the risk of at least one fall by 19 per cent, the report indicates.

When the researchers grouped the women who fell by season of first fall or the number of falls suffered, they found that vitamin D2 supplementation reduced the risk of having the first fall in winter and spring but not in summer and autumn. Vitamin D2 at a dose of 1,000 IU per day plus calcium was associated with a '23 per cent reduction of the risk of falling in winter/spring to the same level as in summer/autumn', Dr Prince and colleagues report.