The effect of daily zinc and/or multivitamin supplements on early childhood development in Tanzania: results from 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.

Impaired childhood development has lifelong consequences for educational attainment and wage-earning potential.

At approximately 15 months, a sub-sample of 247 children underwent developmental assessment using the cognitive, language (receptive and expressive) and motor (fine and gross) scales of the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development Third Edition (BSID-III).

Who Took Part

The study group was 2400 infants.

The age groups tagged for this paper are infants, young adults and adults, both men and women.

How the Study Was Run

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

The infants were allocated by chance, so the Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc group and the comparison group should start out alike.

Blinding on both sides kept the infants and researchers unaware of who received Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc.

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

In this randomized, 2 × 2 factorial, double-blind trial, 2400 infants were randomized to zinc (Zn), multivitamins (MV), zinc and multivitamins (Zn + MV) or placebo at 6 weeks of age.

What Was Measured

At approximately 15 months, a sub-sample of 247 children underwent developmental assessment using the cognitive, language (receptive and expressive) and motor (fine and gross) scales of the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development Third Edition (BSID-III).

Mean BSID-III scores were compared using univariate and multivariate linear regression models adjusted for child's sex, post-conceptual age and test administrator.

PubMed files the paper under topics including Child Development, Cognition, Dietary Supplements, Socioeconomic Factors, Tanzania, Vitamins 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 2400 infants.

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

The publication is from 2017 (Maternal & child nutrition), a journal based in England.

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