Effect of vitamin D3 on asthma treatment failures in adults with symptomatic asthma and lower vitamin D levels: the VIDA randomized clinical trial.

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc, published as a randomized controlled trial.

Who Took Part

According to the abstract, 408 patients were involved.

PubMed indexes the participants as adults and middle-aged adults, both men and women.

The VIDA (Vitamin D Add-on Therapy Enhances Corticosteroid Responsiveness in Asthma) randomized, double-blind, parallel, placebo-controlled trial studying adult patients with symptomatic asthma and a serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D level of less than 30 ng/mL was conducted across 9 academic US medical centers in the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute's AsthmaNet network, with enrollment starting in April 2011 and follow-up complete by January 2014.

After a run-in period that included treatment with an inhaled corticosteroid, 408 patients were randomized.

How the Study Was Run

The design is described as randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled and parallel-group.

Because people in this Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

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

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

The Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc group and the comparison group ran side by side rather than switching.

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including Administration, Inhalation, Adrenal Cortex Hormones, Anti-Asthmatic Agents, Asthma, Cholecalciferol, Glucocorticoids and Lung.

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 408 patients.

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

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 5 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2014 (JAMA), a journal based in United States.

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