Redistribution of vitamin A after iron supplementation in Indonesian infants.

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of Zinc and Iron, published as a randomized controlled trial.

This study investigated interactions among 3 important micronutrients--iron, vitamin A, and zinc--when they are given as supplements.

Why It Was Studied

Deficiencies of iron and vitamin A are prevalent worldwide.

Single-micronutrient supplementation is widely used to combat these deficiencies.

Who Took Part

According to the abstract, 387 infants were involved.

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

How the Study Was Run

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

Because people in this Zinc study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

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

Some infants received a placebo instead of Zinc, giving a reference point.

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including Antioxidants, Dietary Supplements, Indonesia, Infant Nutritional Physiological Phenomena, Iron, Iron Deficiencies and Liver.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Zinc and Iron in 387 infants.

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 6 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2003 (The American journal of clinical nutrition), a journal based in United States.

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