Zinc supplementation for prevention of acute respiratory infections in infants: a randomized controlled trial.

What Was Tested

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

To study the effect of 2 weeks of prophylactic zinc supplementation on incidence and duration of acute respiratory infections.

Who Took Part

According to the abstract, 272 children were involved.

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

Community based; urban resettlement area in North-East Delhi, India.

272 children aged 6-11 months with acute respiratory infections.

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.

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

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

Randomized double blind controlled trial.

Children receiving zinc supplement within the past 3 months, severely malnourished, immuno-deficient, on steroid therapy, with severe illness requiring hospitalization, or children of families likely to migrate from the study area were excluded.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Dietary Supplements, Incidence, India, Respiratory Tract Infections and Zinc.

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 272 children.

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 2014 (Indian pediatrics), a journal based in India.

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