Zinc supplementation in acute diarrhea is acceptable, does not interfere with oral rehydration, and reduces the use of other medications: a randomized trial in five countries.

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial looks at Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc.

Assess the impact of zinc supplementation with locally developed culturally specific educational statements (messages) on oral rehydration solution (ORS) and antibiotics or antidiarrheal use in children with acute watery diarrhea as well as to assess adherence and side effects of zinc.

Who Took Part

According to the abstract, 2,002 children were involved.

The age groups tagged for this paper are infants and young children, both men and women.

Participants were 2,002 children aged 2 to 59 months.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized study.

Random assignment meant chance, not the researchers, decided who got Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc and who got the comparison, which limits bias.

Primary outcomes were ORS use on day 3 to 5; adherence to zinc; and any use of an antibacterial/antidiarrheal up to day 14.

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including Acute Disease, Antidiarrheals, Combined Modality Therapy, Diarrhea, Dietary Supplements, Fluid Therapy and Patient Compliance.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized study of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc in 2,002 children.

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

The publication is from 2006 (Journal of pediatric gastroenterology and nutrition), a journal based in United States.

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