|
Multivitamins don’t prevent infections in older people
Newswise — Multivitamin and mineral supplements don’t appear to
prevent infections in older people living at home, finds a study in
the British Medical Journal (BMJ).
At
least 10% of older people have a vitamin or mineral deficiency,
which can lead to poor immunity and increased risk of infection. At
least a quarter of older people in the UK take nutritional
supplements, but it is unclear whether they have any influence on
infections.
Researchers at Aberdeen University identified 910 men and women aged
65 or over who did not take vitamins or minerals. Participants were
randomised to a daily multivitamin and multimineral supplement or a
dummy (placebo) tablet for one year.
During
this time, participants were asked to record contacts with primary
care for infection, number of days with infection and quality of
life. Numbers of antibiotic prescriptions and hospital admissions
were also taken into account.
Supplementation did not seem to affect contacts with primary care,
days with infection or overall quality of life. These results are
consistent with several other studies on this issue.
Regular
use of commonly available multivitamin and multimineral supplements
is unlikely to reduce the number of self-reported infections or
associated use of health services for people living at home, say the
authors. It remains to be seen whether those at higher risk of
infections, such as older people living in care, would benefit from
supplementation.
Click
here to view full paper:
http://press.psprings.co.uk/bmj/august/gp324.pdf
|