Zinc, vitamin A, and micronutrient supplementation in children with diarrhea: a randomized controlled clinical trial of combination therapy versus monotherapy.

What Was Tested

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

Who Took Part

PubMed indexes the participants as infants, men only.

Children aged 6 to 24 months with diarrhea and moderate dehydration were randomized to receive zinc plus placebo vitamin A (group 1), zinc plus other micronutrients plus vitamin A (group 2), zinc plus vitamin A (group 3), or placebo (group 4) as an adjunct to oral rehydration solution.

Duration, volume of diarrhea, and consumption of oral rehydration solution were compared as outcome variables within the supplemented groups and with the placebo group.

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.

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.

This was a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial.

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including Acute Disease, Dehydration, Diarrhea, Dietary Supplements, Feces, Fluid Therapy and Micronutrients.

What This Means in Plain Language

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

Results are reported in around 4 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2011 (The Journal of pediatrics), a journal based in United States.

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