The impact of zinc supplementation on growth and body composition: a randomized, controlled trial among rural Zimbabwean schoolchildren.

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial looks at Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc.

To assess the effect of zinc supplementation on growth and body composition among schoolchildren.

Why It Was Studied

Weight, height, upper arm circumference, triceps skinfold thickness, and weight-for-age, height-for-age, weight-for-height, arm muscle-area-for-age and arm fat-area-for-age Z-scores.

Who Took Part

According to the abstract, 144 boys were involved.

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

313 rural Zimbabwean schoolchildren (144 boys and 169 girls, 11-17 y).

How the Study Was Run

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

Because people in this Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

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

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

Due to drought, a food programme was in operation during the last eight months of the study.

What Was Measured

Weight, height, upper arm circumference, triceps skinfold thickness, and weight-for-age, height-for-age, weight-for-height, arm muscle-area-for-age and arm fat-area-for-age Z-scores.

PubMed files the paper under topics including Anthropometry, Body Composition, Body Height, Growth, Micronutrients, Nutritional Status and Patient Compliance.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc in 144 boys.

Results are reported in around 4 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 1997 (European journal of clinical nutrition), a journal based in England.

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