Effect of zinc supplementation on mortality in children aged 1-48 months: a community-based randomised placebo-controlled trial.

What Was Tested

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

Their aim was to assess the effects of zinc supplementation on overall mortality in children in Pemba, Zanzibar.

Who Took Part

The study group was 42,546 children.

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

The researchers enrolled 42,546 children aged 1-36 months, contributing a total of 56,507 child-years in a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial in Pemba, Zanzibar.

How the Study Was Run

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

As a double-blind Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc study, the assignments were hidden from both participants and investigators until the end.

Some children received a placebo instead of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc, giving a reference point.

The primary endpoint was overall mortality, and analysis was by intention to treat.

This study is registered as an International Standard Randomised Clinical Trial, number ISRCTN59549825.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Age Distribution, Cause of Death, Child Mortality, Communicable Disease Control, Communicable Diseases, Community Health Services and Diarrhea, Infantile.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc in 42,546 children.

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

Results are reported in around 2 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2007 (Lancet (London, England)), a journal based in England.

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