Effects of weekly cholecalciferol supplementation of lactating mothers on vitamin D status, and infant growth and gross motor development: a randomized controlled trial in rural Ethiopia.

What Was Tested

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

Vitamin D plays crucial roles in bone metabolism, growth, and immune response during critical life stages.

There is little evidence on the effects of vitamin D supplementation among lactating mothers and their infants in sub-Saharan Africa.

Who Took Part

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

Additional secondary outcomes included infant growth and motor development.

How the Study Was Run

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

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

The comparison arm used a placebo, so changes seen with Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc could be set against what happens without it.

Primary outcomes were maternal and infant plasma 25-hydroxy vitamin D (25(OH)D) concentrations and infant clinical diagnosis for "suspected rickets." Secondary outcomes included biomarkers of bone metabolism, such as maternal plasma concentrations of parathyroid hormone, cross-linked telopeptide type 1 collagen, osteocalcin, and bone-specific alkaline phosphatase (BAP), infant plasma BAP, and maternal urinary concentrations of calcium, phosphorus, and calcium/creatinine ratio.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Biomarkers, Child Development, Cholecalciferol, Dietary Supplements, Ethiopia, Lactation and Maternal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena.

The authors tagged it with the keywords infants, lactating mothers, low-income setting, tropical region and vitamin D supplementation.

What This Means in Plain Language

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

Results are reported in around 6 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2025 (The American journal of clinical nutrition), a journal based in United States.

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