Zinc supplementation during pregnancy and effects on mental development and behaviour of infants: a follow-up study.

What Was Tested

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

Zinc deficiency is widely prevalent in developing countries.

The researchers assessed these infants at age 13 months to establish the effect of antenatal zinc supplementation on infant development and behaviour.

Who Took Part

The abstract describes 559 women taking part.

The age groups tagged for this paper are infants, women only.

The effect of zinc supplementation on pregnancy outcome and on infant growth and morbidity in the first 6 months was assessed.

When babies in this subsample reached age 13 months, the researchers assessed mental development with Bayley scales of infant development-II, rated behaviour on a modified version of Wolke's scales, and measured weight and height.

How the Study Was Run

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

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

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

The researchers then randomly selected a subsample of 168 infants from 383 who completed the study at 6 months.

What Was Measured

The researchers assessed these infants at age 13 months to establish the effect of antenatal zinc supplementation on infant development and behaviour.

PubMed files the paper under topics including Bangladesh, Body Mass Index, Infant Behavior, Mental Health, Prenatal Care and Zinc.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized and placebo-controlled study of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc in 559 women.

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

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 (Lancet (London, England)), a journal based in England.

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