Effect of zinc supplementation on malaria and other causes of morbidity in west African children: randomised double blind placebo controlled trial.

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc, published as a randomized controlled trial.

To study the effects of zinc supplementation on malaria and other causes of morbidity in young children living in an area holoendemic for malaria in west Africa.

Who Took Part

The abstract describes 709 children taking part.

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

709 children were enrolled; 685 completed the trial.

How the Study Was Run

The design is described as randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled.

The children were allocated by chance, so the Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc group and the comparison group should start out alike.

As a double-blind Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc study, the assignments were hidden from both participants and investigators until the end.

A placebo (an inactive look-alike) gave the Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc group a baseline to be compared against.

18 villages in rural northwestern Burkina Faso.

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Diarrhea, Dietary Supplements, Hematocrit, Incidence, Malaria, Falciparum, Morbidity and Parasitemia.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc in 709 children.

With several hundred people or more, it is a fairly large study for this kind of research.

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 2001 (BMJ (Clinical research ed.)), a journal based in England.

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