The effect of the dietary supplement, Chitosan, on body weight: a randomised controlled trial in 250 overweight and obese adults.

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of Chitin, published as a randomized controlled trial.

Who Took Part

According to the abstract, 250 participants were involved.

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were adults and middle-aged adults, both men and women.

All participants received standardised dietary and lifestyle advice for weight loss.

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 Chitin and who got the comparison, which limits bias.

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

A placebo (an inactive look-alike) gave the Chitin group a baseline to be compared against.

A 24-week randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, conducted at the University of Auckland between November 2001 and December 2002.

Adherence was monitored by capsule counts.

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including Anti-Obesity Agents, Anticholesteremic Agents, Chitin, Chitosan, Cholesterol, Dietary Supplements and Obesity.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Chitin in 250 participants.

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 2004 (International journal of obesity and related metabolic disorders : journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity), a journal based in England.

More context: all human trials.