Iron status in early childhood is modified by diet, sex and growth: Secondary analysis of a randomized controlled vitamin D trial.

What Was Tested

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

During early childhood the risk of iron deficiency (ID) is high.

Serum ferritin serves as a marker of iron status.

The researchers explored prevalence of ID and iron deficiency anemia (IDA), and identified determinants of iron status in infants and toddlers.

Who Took Part

According to the abstract, 766 children were involved.

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

The researchers performed a secondary analysis of the Vitamin D intervention in infants (VIDI) study in Finnish healthy term infants.

For the present study, altogether 766 children provided data (N = 498 infants at 12 months, N = 508 toddlers at 24 months).

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized study.

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

According to study protocol, at 12- and 24-months of age iron status, growth and dietary intakes were evaluated.

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Anemia, Iron-Deficiency, Diet, Diet Surveys, Ferritins, Finland, Nutritional Status and Prevalence.

Author keywords: Infant, Iron deficiency and Toddler.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized study of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc in 766 children.

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

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 15 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2022 (Clinical nutrition (Edinburgh, Scotland)), a journal based in England.

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