Résumé
Public health interest in zinc nutrition has surged over the past 25 y, starting after several meta-analyses showed a potential beneficial impact of zinc supplements on diarrhea and pneumonia [...]. Although the beneficial effects of therapeutic zinc supplements in diarrhea appear to be well established, the impact of preventive zinc supplements to improve health is less clear. Several meta-analyses conducted a few years ago reported beneficial effects of preventive zinc supplementation in children older than 6 mo on incidence of diarrhea (13% reduction), linear growth (+0.09 z-score), and mortality (9% reduction) (4, 5). But many questions remained, including the optimal amount of zinc to be given and interactions with other minerals, especially iron. To answer some of these questions, 2 large preventive zinc supplementation trials in preschool children, one in Laos and one in Bangladesh, were conducted over the past 5 y [...].