Effect of zinc supplementation on growth and body composition in children with sickle cell disease.

What Was Tested

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

The objective was to determine the effects of zinc supplementation on growth and body composition in children with SCD.

Longitudinal-mixed-effects analysis was used to test for differences between the groups over the 12-mo observation period.

Why It Was Studied

Poor growth and delayed maturation in children with sickle cell disease (SCD) may be due, in part, to mild zinc deficiency.

Who Took Part

The study group was 20 girls.

The age groups tagged for this paper are young children and children, both men and women.

Dietary intakes were evaluated and anthropometric, high-precision knee-height, and plasma zinc measurements were made at baseline and at 3, 6, and 12 mo.

How the Study Was Run

The design is described as randomized.

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

The 2 groups were stratified by sex and initial height status.

Body composition was determined every 6 mo with dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry, and z scores for anthropometric variables were computed from national reference data.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Body Composition, Body Height, Developmental Disabilities, Diet, Nutritional Status, Sickle Cell Trait and Zinc.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized study of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc in 20 girls.

With fewer than 40 people, it is a small study, so it is better read as an early signal for further research than as a settled answer.

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 5 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

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.