A randomised, double-blind assessment of the effect of nutritional supplementation on the prevention of pressure ulcers in hip-fracture patients.

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Zinc and Antioxidants in this randomized controlled trial publication.

Malnutrition is a risk factor for development of pressure ulcers (PU).

The researchers investigated the effect of nutritional supplementation on incidence of PU in hip-fracture patients at risk of developing PU.

Who Took Part

The age groups tagged for this paper are older adults and people over 80, both men and women.

Hip-fracture patients (n=103) were included in this double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled trial.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as 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 participants received a placebo instead of Zinc, giving a reference point.

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including Antioxidants, Arginine, Bed Rest, Dietary Proteins, Disease Progression, Geriatric Assessment and Hip Fractures.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Zinc and Antioxidants.

Its findings take up roughly 6 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2003 (Clinical nutrition (Edinburgh, Scotland)), a journal based in England.

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