Short-term supplementation with zinc and vitamin A has no significant effect on the growth of undernourished Bangladeshi children.

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc in this randomized controlled trial publication.

This study evaluated the effect on growth in children of simultaneous supplementation with zinc and vitamin A.

Why It Was Studied

Addition of zinc to vitamin A might result in enhanced growth.

Who Took Part

PubMed indexes the participants as infants and young children, both men and women.

Weight and length were measured at enrollment and again after 3 and 6 mo.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study.

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

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.

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

This was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled intervention trial.

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Analysis of Variance, Bangladesh, Body Height, Dietary Supplements, Nutritional Status, Poverty Areas and Urban Population.

What This Means in Plain Language

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

Its findings take up roughly 5 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2002 (The American journal of clinical nutrition), a journal based in United States.

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