ReviewAge (Dordrecht, Netherlands)2013
Zinc: dietary intake and impact of supplementation on immune function in elderly.
Review in Age (Dordrecht, Netherlands), 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT07367412 (Effect of Zinc Supplementation on Occurrence of Infections in Older Medical Patients), which is not on this map. Cited by 78 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Effect of Zinc Supplementation on Occurrence of Infections in Older Medical Patients (ZOOM) - a Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial (ZOOM OUT).
Who cites it
78 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 196 citations in OpenAlex.
- Global hotspots and trends of nutritional supplements for sick populations from 2000 to 2024.Frontiers in nutrition · 2025Pooled it
- Effects of Organic Zinc on the Growth Performance of Weanling Pigs: A Meta-analysis.Biological trace element research · 2024Pooled it
- Correcting zinc deficiency in nursing home residents: a randomized trial comparing 30 and 60 mg/day elemental zinc supplementation.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Trial
- Trial
- Twelve-Week Daily Consumption ofNutrients · 2020Trial
- Short Term Oral Zinc Supplementation among Babies with Neonatal Sepsis for Reducing Mortality and Improving Outcome - A Double-Blind Randomized Controlled Trial.Indian journal of pediatrics · 2018Trial
- Effects of zinc-fortified drinking skim milk (as functional food) on cytokine release and thymic hormone activity in very old persons: a pilot study.Age (Dordrecht, Netherlands) · 2014Trial
- International Society of Sports Nutrition position stand: effects of dietary antioxidants on exercise and sports performance.Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition · 2026Review
- Acute Changes in Trace Elements and Antioxidant Biomarkers in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Undergoing Coronary Angiography for Suspected or Known Coronary Artery Disease.Biological trace element research · 2026Article
- Zinc and Copper Metallic Instability: Investigating Altered Metal Functionality in both Human and Animal Studies.Biological trace element research · 2026Review
- Persistent Zinc Deficiency Among Residents of a Long-Term Care Facility: A Five-Year Longitudinal Study.Cureus · 2026Article
- Article
- Artificial Neural Network as a Tool to Predict Severe Toxicity of Anticancer Drug Therapy in Patients with Gastric Cancer: A Retrospective Study.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Evaluation of Serum Zinc Status in Patients With Neurologic Impairment Under Controlled Enteral Nutrition.Cureus · 2025Article
- Benefits and risks of hair, skin, and nail supplements in older adults.International journal of women's dermatology · 2025Review
- Article
- Essential minerals in colostrum of preterm and full-term Ghanaian mothers and related maternal factors.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Dietary Zn-Recent Advances in Studies on Its Bioaccessibility and Bioavailability.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Incidence and Risk Factors for Hospital-Acquired Pressure Ulcers in Patients With COVID-19.Cureus · 2025Article
- Immunosenescence and inflammaging: Mechanisms and modulation through diet and lifestyle.Frontiers in immunology · 2025Review
18 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The diet in the elderly does not provide a sufficient level of nutrients needed to maintain an adequate healthy status leading to micronutrient deficiencies and impaired immune response with subsequent development of degenerative diseases. Nutrient "zinc" is a relevant micronutrient involved in maintaining a good integrity of many body homeostatic mechanisms, including immune efficiency, owing to its requirement for the biological activity of many enzymes, proteins and for cellular proliferation and genomic stability. Old people aged 60-65 years and older have zinc intakes below 50% of the recommended daily allowance on a given day. Many causes can be involved: among them, altered intestinal absorption, inadequate mastication, psychosocial factors, drugs interactions, altered subcellular processes (zinc transporters (Zip and ZnT family), metallothioneins, divalent metal transporter-1). Zinc supplementation may remodel the immune alterations in elderly leading to healthy ageing. Several zinc trials have been carried out with contradictory data, perhaps due to incorrect choice of an effective zinc supplementation in old subjects showing subsequent zinc toxic effects on immunity. Old subjects with specific IL-6 polymorphism (GG allele carriers; named C-) are more prone for zinc supplementation than the entire old population, in whom correct dietary habits with foods containing zinc (Mediterranean diet) may be sufficient in restoring zinc deficiency and impaired immune response. We summarise the main causes of low zinc dietary intake in elderly reporting an update on the impact of zinc supplementation upon the immune response also on the basis of individual IL-6 polymorphism.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.