Multi-Micronutrient Fortified Rice Improved Serum Zinc and Folate Concentrations of Cambodian School Children. A Double-Blinded Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial.

What Was Tested

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

Their objective was to investigate the impact of multiple-micronutrient fortified rice (MMFR), distributed through a World Food Program school-meals program (WFP-SMP) on serum zinc concentrations and folate status in a double-blind, cluster-randomized, placebo-controlled trial.

Why It Was Studied

Within Cambodia, micronutrient deficiencies continue to be prevalent in vulnerable groups, such as women and children.

Who Took Part

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

A total of 1950 schoolchildren (6-16 years old) participated in the study.

How the Study Was Run

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

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

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.

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

Serum zinc (all groups) and folate (only in NutriRice and placebo group) concentrations were assessed from morning non-fasting antecubital blood samples and were measured at three time points (baseline and after three and six months).

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Adolescent Nutritional Physiological Phenomena, Age Factors, Biomarkers, Cambodia, Child Nutritional Physiological Phenomena, Folic Acid and Folic Acid Deficiency.

The authors tagged it with the keywords fortified rice, micronutrient, school children 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.

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 2019 (Nutrients), a journal based in Switzerland.

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