Oral Vitamin D Substitution Weekly or Monthly and Adherence

• Status: Completed
• Trial end date: 2018-10-31
• Target enrollment: 0
• Participant gender: All

Summary

Vitamin D deficiency (defined as 25(OH)-vitamin D serum level <50 nmol/l) is cured with supplementation by mouth. National guidelines recommend the administration of 800 IU cholecalciferol daily for an effective treatment, especially during the winter (poor sun exposition). Commercially available pharmaceutical forms are liquid in Switzerland (drops) and solid forms in Germany (tablets and capsules). Because therapeutic range of vitamin D3 is wide and toxicity is seldom reached, even after the consumption of 200'000 IU, and because the administration of 8 drops daily is inconvenient, weekly and monthly administrations of the cumulative amount (i.e., 5'600 IU weekly or 24'000 IU monthly) have been investigated. Both administration schedules are therapeutic equivalent. The study aims to investigate which form (liquid or solid) and which schedule (weekly or monthly) procure the highest adherence behavior with outpatients under polypharmacy i.e., with 4 or more medications daily. The investigators will use commercially available Swiss and German products.

• Phase: Phase 4
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers?: No

Details

• Lead Sponsor: University Hospital, Basel, Switzerland
• Treatments: Ergocalciferols; Vitamin D; Vitamins

Criteria

Inclusion Criteria:

• vitamin D deficiency by serum level <50 nmol/l

• polypharmacy defined as 4 daily medicines or more

• speaking German or Swiss German

Exclusion Criteria:

• hypercalcaemia

• substitution treatment with cholecalciferol in the past 3 months

• medication intake provided by a third person and not by the patient himself