Calcium supplements given to healthy children confer very little health benefits, according to Australian researchers reporting in the September 16 edition of the British Medical Journal.
The researchers from the Menzies Research Institute, in Tasmania conducted a meta analysis of 19 studies and found that the bone mineral density in children only increased by 1.7 percent and the risk of fracture was not significantly reduced. "At two of the areas where we worry about fractures in later life -- the spine and the hip -- the giving of calcium supplements had no effect on bone health in children," said study lead author Dr. Tania Winzenberg.
The review involved nearly 2,900 children aged 3 to 18. The researchers found that the bone density in areas where fractures might occur, like hip and lumbar spine did not increase by much. Also the risk of fractures in these sites was not significantly reduced. "It had been thought that calcium supplements would be more helpful than that in children," Winzenberg said. "So, giving calcium supplements to children has little effect on fractures, and fractures is what we worry about."
But the researchers added that in children who had minimum intake of calcium through diet, the supplements would prove to be very useful. In healthy children, calcium could be better obtained through diet, they said. "The small effect of calcium supplementation on bone mineral density in the upper limb is unlikely to reduce the risk of fracture, either in childhood or later life, to a degree of major public health importance. It may be appropriate to explore alternative nutritional interventions, such as increasing vitamin D concentrations and intake of fruit and vegetables," the researchers concluded.
In children who cannot eat dairy products and who may have bone problems, these findings are inapplicable, the researchers stressed. Dr. David L. Katz of the Prevention Research Center at Yale University School of Medicine agreed. "Healthy children, with an adequate diet, may have all the calcium they need to build bone," he said. "Growing bone might need a combination of materials, such as calcium combined with vitamin D, to grow stronger."
