Lung VITAL: Rationale, design, and baseline characteristics of an ancillary study evaluating the effects of vitamin D and/or marine omega-3 fatty acid supplements on acute exacerbations of chronic respiratory disease, asthma control, pneumonia and lung function in adults.

What Was Tested

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

The ongoing Lung VITAL study is taking advantage of a large clinical trial-the VITamin D and OmegA-3 TriaL (VITAL)--to conduct the first major evaluation of the influences of vitamin D and marine omega-3 fatty acid supplementation on pneumonia risk, respiratory exacerbation episodes, asthma control and lung function in adults.

Who Took Part

The study group was 1973 participants.

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were middle-aged adults, older adults and people over 80, both men and women.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized, double-blind 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.

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

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

What Was Measured

The ongoing Lung VITAL study is taking advantage of a large clinical trial-the VITamin D and OmegA-3 TriaL (VITAL)--to conduct the first major evaluation of the influences of vitamin D and marine omega-3 fatty acid supplementation on pneumonia risk, respiratory exacerbation episodes, asthma control and lung function in adults.

The subject headings attached to it are Acute Disease, Asthma, Cholecalciferol, Clinical Protocols, Dietary Supplements, Disease Progression and Docosahexaenoic Acids.

The authors tagged it with the keywords COPD, Lung function, Omega-3 fatty acids, Randomized clinical trial, Respiratory symptoms 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 in 1973 participants.

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

The publication is from 2016 (Contemporary clinical trials), a journal based in United States.

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