Efecto del consumo de un complemento alimentario en la concentración plasmática de cinc en adultos mayores residentes en Santiago de Chile

background: zinc intake is well below recommendation among chilean free living elderly adults of low socioeconomic level aim: to assess the effect of the consumption of a food supplement on plasma zinc concentrations in elderly adults (ea). material and methods: ambulatory ea (z70) with controlled type 2 diabetes mellitus or high blood pressure, ascribed to public family health centers were studied. they were separated in a control and intervention group, without blinding techniques. the intervention group consumed daily 50 g of a special nutritional supplement prepared as a soup or porridge, provided by the government, for 3 months. the control group did not receive the supplement. a good compliance with the supplement was defined as a consumption of 7 portions per week. a fasting venous blood sample was obtained to determine plasma zinc at the beginning and end of the study. results: forty three supplemented ea aged 76±5 years (21 women) and 31 non supplemented ea aged 78±5 years (20 women), completed 3 months of follow up. mean compliance with the supplement was 40.5% (95% confidence intervals (ci) 40.3-40.6%). general characteristics of the study subjects upon recruitment were similar, except for the literacy that was higher in the intervention group. we fitted a multiple linear regression model which explained 39% of the variance, where the consumption of the nutritional supplement increased the concentration ofplasmatic zinc by 4.14 fig/dl (95% ci 0.25-8.02) (p<0.037), after controlling for sex, age, energy, vitamin e and calcium consumption. conclusions: the consumption of a food supplement significantly increased plasma zinc concentrations in chilean elderly adults (revméd chile 2007; 135:1015-24)