Extension of the Calcium Intake Fracture Outcome Study

骨质疏松症是一种很大程度上可以预防的疾病，但十分之一的澳大利亚人患有骨质疏松症。每年有64,000例骨质疏松性骨折发生，每8.1分钟发生一例，女性患此病的可能性是男性的三倍。西澳大利亚大学的骨钙研究小组正在研究如何预防老年妇女骨质疏松症。这项研究被称为钙摄入骨折结果研究或CAIFOS。1998年，1500名女性被招募来研究5年每天补钙是否比不补钙更有助于预防骨折。为了做到这一点，只有一半的女性服用钙补充剂，另一半服用相同的安慰剂片。每年对研究参与者进行审查，询问他们是否骨折，并通过其他测量来监测他们的骨骼健康和整体健康状况。受试者将进入治疗的最后一年，并将于2003年完成研究。在这次预约中，所有受试者将接受与研究开始时相同的一系列测量，以确定他们在治疗阶段是否有骨折，是否改善了他们的骨量和整体健康状况。该研究的主要结果是确定钙作为补充剂是否有助于预防老年妇女骨质疏松性骨折。如果这项研究发现钙治疗组比未治疗组更少的女性骨折，考虑到两组开始时相似，我们可以说补充钙可以预防骨折。因此，预防骨质疏松症的公共健康信息将能够指导社区服用补充剂，以预防在以后的生活中造成疼痛和残疾的疾病。这项研究的优势在于它研究了这些女性健康的其他方面，因此我们可以确定钙是否可以安全使用并改善人们的生活质量。

Osteoporosis is a largely preventable disease yet 1 in 10 Australians have osteoporosis. Every year >64,000 osteoporotic fractures occur, which is one every 8.1 minutes and women are three times as likely to have the disease than men. The Bone and Calcium Research Group at the University of Western Australia, is studying how to prevent osteoporosis in elderly women. This study is called the Calcium Intake Fracture Outcome Study or CAIFOS. During 1998, 1,500 women were recruited to study whether a daily calcium supplement for 5 years helps to prevent fractures compared to a diet without a supplement. To do this only half of the women were given calcium supplements and the other half were given matched placebo tablets. Each year the study participants are reviewed and asked whether or not they have broken any bones and have other measurements to monitor their bone health and overall health. The subjects are entering their last year of treatment and will finish the study during 2003. At this appointment all subjects will undergo the same series of measurements that they had at the beginning of the study to determine whether or not they have fractured any bones, improved their bone mass and overall health during the treatment stage. The main outcome of the study is to determine whether calcium is useful as a supplement to prevent osteoporotic fracture in elderly women. If this study finds that fewer women fractured in the calcium treated group compared to the non treated group, given that both groups were similar to begin with, we can say that supplementation with calcium prevents fractures. Thus, public health messages about preventing osteoporosis will be able to direct the community to take supplements to prevent a disease that creates pain and disability in later life. The advantage of this study is that it is studying other aspects of these women health, so we can determine whether the calcium is safe to use and improves people's quality of life.