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Randomized trial · measured other health measures

Trial in 154 hospitalized children: one vitamin D dose, no clear difference in outcomes

Somnath and colleagues · Clinical nutrition ESPEN · 2017

Original title: Therapeutic effect of vitamin D in acute lower respiratory infection: A randomized controlled trial.

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What the study found

No difference

No difference in hospital stay length, deaths, intensive care admission, complications or return of infection within 90 days. Vitamin D reached sufficient blood level within 72 hours.

The study at a glance

Type of study
Randomized trial
Who or what was studied
154 people · Children aged 2 months to 5 years in hospital with a lung infection
What was tested
One dose of 100,000 IU vitamin D3 plus usual care vs usual care alone
What it measured
Other health or performance measures
Who has a stake
No disclosure in PubMed
No disclosure in PubMed.
Journal
Clinical nutrition ESPEN, 2017
Source
PubMed record 29072165. This page is based on the abstract only.

How much this study counts

  • ✓Randomized: people were put into groups by chance, so the groups start out alike.
  • •Medium size: 154 people.
  • •Measured other health measures, not colds, flu and other respiratory infections itself.
  • •The PubMed record has no conflict-of-interest statement.
  • •Summarized from the PubMed abstract only. The full paper may hold details the abstract leaves out.

✓ Strength– Limit• Note

These points come from fixed rules about the type of study, its size and length, what it measured, and who has a stake. Every study on Digestery gets the same rules.

Where this study sits

Each dot is one on-topic paper on this question. Steps near the top answer the question more directly.

↑ Stronger evidence

  1. Trials in people: colds, flu and chest infections

    10

    2 benefit, 8 no difference

  2. Trials in people: other measures

    5

    1 benefit, 1 mixed, 2 no difference, 1 harm

    ↑ This study is the ringed dot

  3. Trials in people: lab tests or safety

    1

    1 no difference

  4. Population studies

    1

    1 no difference

  5. Blood levels and genes

    4

    3 benefit, 1 no difference

↓ Weaker evidence

  • Points to benefit
  • Mixed
  • No difference
  • No direction
  • Points to harm

How it fits with the other research

The short answer to “Does vitamin D prevent colds and infections?”

Not clearly; any effect looks small.

Confidence: low. Based on 33 on-topic papers.

Read the full answer

Of the other 4 papers on the same step: 1 benefit, 1 mixed, 1 no difference, 1 harm. This one found no difference.

Other papers on the same step

See all 33 studies on this question

How this page was made

Label

First read of the abstract
Claude Sonnet
Independent second read
Claude Haiku
Differences settled
The two reads agreed on every checked field. Claude Opus 5.5.
Headline
Claude Sonnet, from the checked study record. A script checked its numbers and wording.
Numbers
Checked against the abstract by a script
“How much this study counts”
Fixed rules, the same for every study
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