Effects of zinc supplementation on subscales of anorexia in children: A randomized controlled trial

Objectives: This study aims to assess the effects of zinc supplementation on improving the appetite and its subscales in children.

Methods: This study was conducted in 2013 in Isfahan, Iran. It had two phases. At the first step, after validation of the Child Eating Behaviour Questionaire (CEBQ), it was completed for 300 preschool children, who were randomly selected. The second phase was conducted as a randomized controlled trial. Eighty of these children were randomly selected, and were randomly assigned to two groups of equal number receiving zinc (10 mg/day) or placebo for 12 weeks.

Results: Overall 77 children completed the trial (39 in the case and 3 in the control group).The results showed that zinc supplement can improve calorie intake in children by affecting some CEBQ subscales like Emotional over Eating and Food Responsible.

Conclusion: Zinc supplementation had positive impact in promoting the calorie intake and some subscales of anorexia.

Trial registry code: IRCT201302061434N7