Table 4.
Verified vascular events self reported by healthy postmenopausal women assigned to calcium supplementation or to placebo, reported by family members, and from the national database of hospital admissions in New Zealand.* Values are numbers of women (numbers of events) unless stated otherwise
| Vascular event | Calcium group (n=732) | Placebo group (n=739) | P value† | Relative risk (95% CI) | Calcium event rate/1000 person years (95% CI) | Placebo event rate/1000 person years (95% CI) | Rate ratio (95% CI) | P value‡ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Myocardial infarction | 31 (36) | 21 (22) | 0.16 | 1.49 (0.86 to 2.57) | 11.1 (7.7 to 15.3) | 6.6 (4.2 to 10.0) | 1.67 (0.98 to 2.87) | 0.058 |
| Stroke | 34 (37) | 25 (26) | 0.23 | 1.37 (0.83 to 2.28) | 11.4 (8.0 to 15.7) | 7.8 (5.1 to 11.5) | 1.45 (0.88 to 2.49) | 0.15 |
| Sudden death | 3 | 6 | 0.51 | 0.51 (0.13 to 2.01) | 0.9 (0.2 to 2.7) | 1.8 (0.7 to 3.9) | 0.51 (0.10 to 2.04) | 0.36 |
| Myocardial infarction, stroke, or sudden death | 60 (76) | 50 (54) | 0.32 | 1.21 (0.84 to 1.74) | 23.3 (18.4 to 29.2) | 16.3 (12.2 to 21.3) | 1.43 (1.01 to 2.04) | 0.043 |
*Includes events not self reported by participants but found through the national database of hospital admissions and review of death certificates.
†Differences in numbers of women with verified events, based on Fisher’s exact test.
‡Differences in event rates between groups, based on Fisher’s exact test.