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Osteoporotic fractures marginally reduced with 800 IU of vitamin D and some vitamin K2 – March 2012

Vitamin K supplementation for the primary prevention of osteoporotic fractures: is it cost-effective and is future research warranted?

O Gajic-Veljanoski, A M Bayoumi, G Tomlinson, K Khan and A M Cheung
Osteoporos Int 2012 Mar 8 PMID 22398856

Lifetime supplementation with vitamin K, vitamin D(3), and calcium is likely to reduce fractures and increase survival in postmenopausal women. It would be a cost-effective intervention at commonly used thresholds, but high uncertainty around the cost-effectiveness estimates persists. Further research on the effect of vitamin K on fractures is warranted.

INTRODUCTION: Vitamin K might have a role in the primary prevention of fractures, but uncertainties about its effectiveness and cost-effectiveness persist.

METHODS: We developed a state-transition probabilistic microsimulation model to quantify the cost-effectiveness of various interventions to prevent fractures in 50-year-old postmenopausal women without osteoporosis. We compared

  • no supplementation,
  • vitamin D(3) (800 IU/day) with calcium (1,200 mg/day), and
  • vitamin K(2) (45 mg/day) with vitamin D(3) and calcium (at the same doses).

An additional analysis explored replacing vitamin K(2) with vitamin K(1) (5 mg/day).

RESULTS: Adding vitamin K(2) to vitamin D(3) with calcium reduced the lifetime probability of at least one fracture by 25%, increased discounted survival by 0.7 quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) (95% credible interval (CrI) 0.2; 1.3) and discounted costs by $8,956, yielding an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) of $12,268/QALY. At a $50,000/QALY threshold, the probability of cost-effectiveness was 95% and the population expected value of perfect information (EVPI) was $28.9 billion.
Adding vitamin K(1) to vitamin D and calcium reduced the lifetime probability of at least one fracture by 20%, increased discounted survival by 0.4 QALYs (95% CrI -1.9; 1.4) and discounted costs by $4,014, yielding an ICER of $9,557/QALY. At a $50,000/QALY threshold, the probability of cost-effectiveness was 80% while the EVPI was $414.9 billion. The efficacy of vitamin K was the most important parameter in sensitivity analyses.

CONCLUSIONS: Lifetime supplementation with vitamin K, vitamin D(3), and calcium is likely to reduce fractures and increase survival in postmenopausal women. Given high uncertainty around the cost-effectiveness estimates, further research on the efficacy of vitamin K on fractures is warranted.

DOI: 10.1007/s00198-012-1939-4
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