Substantial reduction in severe diarrheal morbidity by daily zinc supplementation in young north Indian children.

What Was Tested

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

Who Took Part

The abstract describes 10 infants taking part.

PubMed indexes the participants as infants and young children.

A double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial was conducted on children who were identified by a door-to-door survey to be aged 6 to 30 months and residing in the urban slum of Dakshinpuri, New Delhi.

When the child was ill, illness characteristics and treatment seeking outside the home were determined.

How the Study Was Run

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

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 infants nor the staff measuring them knew who was on Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc, so expectations could not easily colour the readings.

Some infants received a placebo instead of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc, giving a reference point.

Field workers visited households every seventh day during the 4-month follow-up period.

At each visit, information was obtained for the previous 7 days on history of fever, number and consistency of stools, and presence of cough.

If the child had diarrhea or vomiting, then dehydration was assessed.

At household visits, 2 packets of oral rehydration salts were given when a child had diarrhea.

Children who visited the study clinic spontaneously for illness or were referred by the field workers were treated according to the standard national program guidelines.

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including Acute Disease, Age Factors, Copper, Diarrhea, Dietary Supplements, Incidence and India.

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 10 infants.

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.

Its findings take up roughly 19 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 (Pediatrics), a journal based in United States.

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