Stear 2003.

Methods	STUDY DESIGN: randomised controlled trial LOCATION AND SETTING: Community (college), UK DURATION OF SUPPLEMENTATION: 15.5 months DURATION OF FOLLOW‐UP: 15.5 months QUALITY ASSESSMENT: High risk of bias RANDOMISED: States random but no description ALLOCATION CONCEALMENT: Yes BLINDING OF SUBJECT: Yes DESCRIPTION OF WITHDRAWALS/DROPOUTS: No TYPE OF ANALYSIS: Available Data and treatment received COMPLIANCE: Assessed CONFOUNDERS MEASURED: spontaneous calcium intake and physical activity
Participants	N SCREENED: unknown N RANDOMISED: 144 N COMPLETED: 131 (15.5 months) M=0% F=100% ETHNICITY: not stated MEAN BASELINE AGE (yrs): 17.3 BASELINE AGE RANGE (yrs): 16‐18 INCLUSION CRITERIA: female sixth form college students EXCLUSION CRITERIA: any medical problem, history of eating disorders, medication known to interfere with bone metabolism BASELINE CALCIUM INTAKE (mg/day): 938 PUBERTAL STAGE: post pubertal
Interventions	1. 1000 mg/day of calcium as calcium carbonate 2. Placebo CO‐INTERVENTIONS: exercise (45 min 3 times per week aerobics with moderate to high impact movements) and no exercise groups
Outcomes	BONE MEASURES: SITES AREAL BONE MINERAL DENSITY: unpublished data femoral neck, lumbar spine, distal radius. BONE MINERAL CONTENT: total body, spine, radius (total, ultradistal, distal third), hip (total, femoral neck, trochanter, intertrochanter), lumbar spine BONE AREA: total body, spine, radius (total, ultradistal, distal third), hip (total, femoral neck, trochanter, intertrochanter), lumbar spine METHOD OF MEASUREMENT: DXA FOLLOW‐UP ASSESSMENT POINTS(yrs): 0, 1.29 OTHER OUTCOMES MEASURED: weight, height, BONE MEASURES INCLUDED IN ANALYSES: AREAL BONE MINERAL DENSITY: unpublished data femoral neck, lumbar spine, distal radius. BONE MINERAL CONTENT: total body, spine, radius (total, ultradistal, distal third), hip (total, femoral neck, trochanter, intertrochanter), lumbar spine BONE AREA: total body, spine, radius (total, ultradistal, distal third), hip (total, femoral neck, trochanter, intertrochanter), lumbar spine SUB‐GROUPS IDENTIFIED: Exercise groups; high compliance groups for calcium and exercise
Notes	Compliance to exercise was poor; only 27% of subjects attended more than 50% of the intervention target. Study also gives results as size‐adjusted BMC ie BMC adjusted for bone area, weight and height
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Allocation concealment?	Low risk	A ‐ Adequate