Effects of vitamin D supplementation in infancy on growth, bone parameters, body composition and gross motor development at age 3-6 years: follow-up of a randomized controlled trial.

What Was Tested

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

In the DIVIDS-2 study the researchers followed up the DIVIDS children, now aged 3-6 years, to determine longer-term effects.

Why It Was Studied

The long-term effects of infant vitamin D supplementation and status are unclear since there have been few controlled intervention trials and these have been small and contradictory.

Who Took Part

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

DIVIDS children, 446 from the vitamin D arm and 466 from the placebo arm, attended the follow-up visit.

Data collection included anthropometry, blood pressure, bone structure and strength by quantitative ultrasound (QUS), gross motor tests, deuterium dilution test of body composition on a subset (n = 229) and blood samples for measurement of vitamin D status.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized and placebo-controlled study.

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.

The comparison arm used a placebo, so changes seen with Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc could be set against what happens without it.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Anthropometry, Body Composition, Body Mass Index, Dietary Supplements, India, Infant, Low Birth Weight and Term Birth.

Author keywords: Vitamin D, bone health and motor development.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized 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 2015 (International journal of epidemiology), a journal based in England.

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