Vitamin D supplementation for severe pneumonia--a randomized controlled trial.

What Was Tested

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

To determine the role of oral vitamin D supplementation for resolution of severe pneumonia in under-five children.

Who Took Part

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

Inpatients from a tertiary care hospital.

Two hundred children [mean (SD) age: 13.9 (11.7) months; boys: 120] between 2 months to 5 years with severe pneumonia.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study.

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

Randomized, double blind, placebo-controlled trial.

Pneumonia was diagnosed in the presence of fever, cough, tachypnea (as per WHO cut-offs) and crepitations.

Children with pneumonia and chest indrawing or at least one of the danger sign (inability to feed, lethargy, cyanosis) were diagnosed as having severe pneumonia.

The two groups were comparable for baseline characteristics including age, anthropometry, socio-demographic profile, and clinical and laboratory parameters.

Both the groups received antibiotics as per the Indian Academy of Pediatrics guidelines, and supportive care (oxygen, intravenous fluids and monitoring).

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including Dietary Supplements, Hospitalization, India, Length of Stay, Pneumonia, Survival Analysis and Vitamin D.

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 6 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2012 (Indian pediatrics), a journal based in India.

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