Effect of zinc supplementation on morbidity and growth in hospital-born, low-birth-weight infants.

What Was Tested

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

Low-birth-weight infants may have impaired zinc status, but little is known about the effect of zinc supplementation.

Who Took Part

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were infants, both men and women.

How the Study Was Run

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

Because people in this Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

Blinding on both sides kept the participants and researchers unaware of who received Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc.

The comparison arm used a placebo, so changes seen with Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc could be set against what happens without it.

All-cause hospitalizations, prevalence of diarrhea, acute lower respiratory tract infections, visits to health care providers, weights, and lengths were ascertained at 3, 6, 9, and 12 mo of age.

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including Anthropometry, Body Height, Diarrhea, Infantile, Dietary Supplements, Hospitalization, India and Infant, Low Birth Weight.

What This Means in Plain Language

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

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 2009 (The American journal of clinical nutrition), a journal based in United States.

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