S12
Food and Nutrition Bulletin,
vol. 30, no. 1 (supplement) © 2009, The United Nations University.
Preventive zinc supplementation among infants,
preschoolers, and older prepubertal children
Abstract
Zinc supplementation trials carried out among children
have produced variable results, depending on the specific
outcomes considered and the initial characteristics of
the children who were enrolled. We completed a series
of meta-analyses to examine the impact of preventive
zinc supplementation on morbidity; mortality; physical
growth; biochemical indicators of zinc, iron, and copper
status; and indicators of behavioral development, along
with possible modifying effects of the intervention results.
Zinc supplementation reduced the incidence of diarrhea
by ~20%, but the impact was limited to studies that
enrolled children with a mean initial age greater than
12 months. Among the subset of studies that enrolled
children with mean initial age greater than 12 months,
the relative risk of diarrhea was reduced by 27%. Zinc
supplementation reduced the incidence of acute lower
respiratory tract infections by ~15%. Zinc supplementa
-
tion yielded inconsistent impacts on malaria incidence,
and too few trials are currently available to allow defini
-
tive conclusions to be drawn. Zinc supplementation had a
marginal 6% impact on overall child mortality, but there
was an 18% reduction in deaths among zinc-supple
-
mented children older than 12 months of age. Zinc sup
-
plementation increased linear growth and weight gain by
a small, but highly significant, amount. The interventions
yielded a consistent, moderately large increase in mean
serum zinc concentrations, and they had no significant
adverse effects on indicators of iron and copper status.