Interaction of zinc or vitamin A supplementation and specific parasite infections on Mexican infants' growth: a randomized clinical trial.

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc, published as a randomized controlled trial.

The researchers carried out a double-blind placebo-controlled trial to evaluate the effect of vitamin A and zinc supplementation on gastro-intestinal pathogen infections and growth among 584 infants in Mexico City.

Who Took Part

The study group was 584 infants.

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

Growth velocity slopes, generated from the linear regression of individual child length, and height-for-age z-scores on time were analyzed as end points in regression models, adjusting for the presence of parasite infections.

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 Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc and who got the comparison, which limits bias.

Neither the infants nor the staff measuring them knew who was on Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc, so expectations could not easily colour the readings.

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

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including Ascariasis, Ascaris lumbricoides, Body Height, Dietary Supplements, Dysentery, Amebic, Feces and Giardiasis.

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 584 infants.

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

The publication is from 2009 (European journal of clinical nutrition), a journal based in England.

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