Zinc supplementation in severe acute lower respiratory tract infection in children: a triple-blind randomized placebo controlled trial.

What Was Tested

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

Who Took Part

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

Children in the age group of 2-24 months presenting to pediatric emergency with severe ALRTI were included.

Eligible children were randomly allocated to zinc (n=53) or control (n=53) groups.

How the Study Was Run

The design is described as randomized 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.

A placebo (an inactive look-alike) gave the Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc group a baseline to be compared against.

This randomized triple-blind placebo-controlled trial was conducted in pediatric emergency of a teaching referral hospital.

Control group received an equal amount of placebo which was appropriately modified to give the taste, smell, color and consistency similar to zinc mixture.

Primary outcome was 'time to be asymptomatic', a composite outcome defined as resolution of all four of the following: danger signs, respiratory distress, tachypnea and hypoxia in room air.

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Acute Disease, Respiratory Tract Infections and Zinc.

What This Means in Plain Language

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

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 6 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2011 (Indian journal of pediatrics), a journal based in India.

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