Zinc + Folic Acid/Iron Doesn’t Affect Childhood Mortality

NEW DELHI, India—While zinc supplementation has been shown in previous trials to reduce diarrhea and respiratory morbidity in young children, adding the mineral to a combination of iron and folic acid given to young children did not impact overall morbidity and mortality (J Nutr, 137:112-7, 2007). The Zinc Study Group, coordinated out of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, conducted a double blind, cluster-randomized controlled trial in 94,359 subjects ages 1 to 23 months; the children received 12.5 mg iron and 50 mcg folic acid, with or without 10 mg elemental zinc. Overall death rates did not differ significantly between the groups, and added zinc did not appear to impact hospitalization rates. Researchers postulated the lack of impact of zinc on mortality and hospitalization rates may have been due to a lower dose of zinc than in previous morbidity prevention trials, or an interaction between zinc and iron.

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