Effects of vitamin D supplementation to children diagnosed with pneumonia in Kabul: a randomised controlled trial.

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc in this randomized controlled trial publication.

Who Took Part

The abstract describes 453 children taking part.

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

Double-blind individually randomised placebo-controlled trial in an inner-city hospital in Kabul, of 453 children aged 1-36 months, diagnosed with non-severe or severe pneumonia at the outpatient clinic.

Children with rickets, other concurrent severe diseases, very severe pneumonia or wheeze, were excluded.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized, double-blind 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.

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.

Children were given vitamin D(3) or placebo drops additional to routine pneumonia treatment.

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including Afghanistan, Anti-Bacterial Agents, Dietary Supplements, Incidence, Kaplan-Meier Estimate, Pneumonia and Recurrence.

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 453 children.

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

Results are reported in around 5 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2010 (Tropical medicine & international health : TM & IH), a journal based in England.

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