Centre for Policy on Ageing



Role of multivitamins and mineral supplements in preventing infections in elderly people — systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials
Author(s)	Alia El-Kadiki, Alexander J Sutton
Journal title	British Medical Journal, vol 330, no 7496, 16 April 2005
Pages	pp 871-874
Source	http://www.bmj.com
Keywords	Vitamins ; Alternative medicine ; Preventative medicine ; Clinical surveys ; Literature reviews.
Annotation	Currently, interest is great in the use of multivitamins and mineral supplements, with the hope of preventing infections. Trials found on Medline and other databases were included in this systematic review if they evaluated the effect of multivitamins and mineral supplements in preventing infections in an older population. Because the outcomes reported were inconsistent, only a proportion of the trials could be included in the meta-analysis: eight trials met the authors' inclusion criteria. 3 studies found the mean annual number of days spent with infection was reduced to 17.5; so the evidence does not support a policy recommending the routine use of such supplements in all older people. Further randomised controlled trials using consistent outcome measures are needed before routine use can be recommended. (RH).
Accession Number	CPA-050504203 A
Classmark	CFE: LK3: LK2: 3G: 64A *
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing

...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.