Effect of daily zinc supplementation on child mortality in southern Nepal: a community-based, cluster randomised, placebo-controlled trial.

What Was Tested

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

Who Took Part

The study group was 41,276 children.

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

The researchers did a community-based, cluster-randomised, double-masked, placebo-controlled, 2x2 factorial trial in children aged 1-35 months.

Study staff gave children tablets on 2 days each week and left tablets with caregivers for other days.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized and placebo-controlled study.

The children were allocated by chance, so the Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc group and the comparison group should start out alike.

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

All children received vitamin A supplementation twice per year.

Results of the iron arm of the trial have been reported previously.

Between October, 2001, and January, 2006, 41,276 children were enrolled into the placebo (n=20,308) or zinc (n=20,968) groups and were followed-up for 60,636.3 person-years.

The primary outcome was child mortality, and analyses were by intention to treat.

This study is registered at ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT00109551.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Child Mortality, Malnutrition, Nepal, Social Class and Zinc.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized and placebo-controlled study of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc in 41,276 children.

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

Results are reported in around 6 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.