Vitamin D supplements might lower the risk of heart attack and other cardiac problems for people over 60 — especially if those people are already taking heart medications.

Evidence of benefit was strongest for people taking cholesterol-lowering statins or other heart medications, said Rachel Neale, deputy coordinator of the population health department at the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute in Queensland, Australia.

For the study, Neale and her colleagues used data from their D-Health Trial in which they randomly assigned more than 21,000 men and women ages 60 to 84 to receive 60,000 IU of vitamin D or a placebo for five years. During that time, more than 1,300 participants had a major cardiovascular event, including 7 percent who were getting the placebo and 6 percent receiving vitamin D.

The rate of major cardiovascular events was 9 percent lower among those taking vitamin D, compared with those taking the placebo — about 6 fewer events per 1,000 participants, the researchers found.

Among those taking vitamin D, the rate of heart attacks was 19 percent lower and the rate of coronary revascularization (treatments that restore blood flow to parts of your heart when that flow is limited or blocked) was 11 percent lower. But no difference in the rate of stroke was seen in the two groups.

The effect of vitamin D appeared stronger among people who were using statins or other cardiovascular drugs, but this finding was not statistically significant.