Impact of high-dose vitamin D and calcium carbonate supplementation on bone density in adolescents living with HIV: a randomised, placebo-controlled trial.

What Was Tested

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

Linear regression was used to compare arms adjusting for country and baseline value of the measure.

Why It Was Studied

HIV has adverse impact on skeletal development in children despite antiretroviral therapy (ART).

European Developing Country Clinical Trials Partnership.

Who Took Part

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

A Participant Advisory Board that included adolescents with HIV, their guardians, and health providers guided study conduct.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized, double-blind 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.

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

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

The researchers conducted an individually randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial.

The primary outcome was total body less-head bone mineral density (TBLH-BMD) Z score and secondary outcome was lumbar spine bone mineral apparent density (LS-BMAD) Z score (both measured by dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry).

The trial is registered with the Pan African Clinical Trials Registry, PACTR20200989766029.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Bone Density, HIV Infections, Calcium Carbonate, Dietary Supplements, Vitamin D, Cholecalciferol and Absorptiometry, Photon.

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 9 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2026 (The Lancet. Child & adolescent health), a journal based in England.

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