Serum zinc levels and effects of oral supplementation in pregnant women.

What Was Tested

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

To evaluate the effects of oral zinc supplementation on the serum zinc levels of pregnant women.

Why It Was Studied

PIMS and KRL Hospital, Islamabad, and community in tehsil Kahuta from April 2003 to April 2004.

Who Took Part

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were teenagers, young adults and adults, women only.

Experimental (double blinded randomized controlled trial).

Pregnant women of 10 to 16 weeks gestation were invited to enter the study on their booking visit.

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.

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

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

A sample size of 125 in each group was calculated.

After taking an informed consent, they were assigned to control or test group by simple random sampling technique.

A detailed questionnaire was filled-up by trained staff and initial evaluation along with serum zinc samples was collected.

These patients were followed up throughout the pregnancy by health care providers and their compliance was monitored.

At delivery, serum samples were again collected for zinc estimation.

What Was Measured

Paired t-test was used for comparison of means.

The subject headings attached to it are Dietary Supplements, Pakistan, Trace Elements and Zinc.

What This Means in Plain Language

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

Its findings take up roughly 9 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2005 (Journal of the College of Physicians and Surgeons--Pakistan : JCPSP), a journal based in Pakistan.

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