Randomized, community-based trial of the effect of zinc supplementation, with and without other micronutrients, on the duration of persistent childhood diarrhea in Lima, Peru.

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial looks at Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc.

To determine whether supplemental zinc, with or without additional micronutrients, affects the severity and duration of persistent childhood diarrhea and the rate of nutritional recovery.

Who Took Part

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were infants and young children, both men and women.

The study was a community-based, double-blind, randomized trial implemented in a shanty town in Lima, Peru.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study.

Random assignment meant chance, not the researchers, decided who got Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc and who got the comparison, which limits bias.

Neither the participants nor the staff measuring them knew who was on Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc, so expectations could not easily colour the readings.

The comparison arm used a placebo, so changes seen with Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc could be set against what happens without it.

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Analysis of Variance, Anthropometry, Diarrhea, Dietary Supplements, Micronutrients, Peru and Zinc.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc.

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 7 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 1999 (The Journal of pediatrics), a journal based in United States.

More context: the Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc compound page, all human trials.