Cholecalciferol Supplementation Does Not Affect the Risk of HIV Progression, Viral Suppression, Comorbidities, Weight Loss, and Depression among Tanzanian Adults Initiating Antiretroviral Therapy: Secondary Outcomes of a Randomized Trial.

What Was Tested

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

The researchers evaluated the effect of cholecalciferol (vitamin D3) supplementation on the risk of HIV disease progression, HIV-1 viral suppression, comorbidities, weight change, and depression among HIV-infected individuals that were initiating antiretroviral therapy (ART) in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Who Took Part

PubMed indexes the participants as adults, both men and women.

The researchers conducted a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of vitamin D3 supplementation among 4000 HIV-infected adult men and nonpregnant women initiating ART with insufficient serum 25(OH)D concentrations (<30 ng/mL).

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.

As a double-blind Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc study, the assignments were hidden from both participants and investigators until the end.

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 Cholecalciferol, Depression, Dietary Supplements, Disease Progression, HIV Infections, Tanzania and Vitamin D.

The authors tagged it with the keywords antiretroviral therapy, body weight, clinical trial, micronutrients and sub-Saharan Africa.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc.

Its findings take up roughly 3 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2022 (The Journal of nutrition), a journal based in United States.

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