title: Randomized clinical trial of the impact of a nutritional supplement "multimixture" on the nutritional status of children enrolled at preschools.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the effect of adding a nutritional supplement "multimixture" to school meals on the nutritional status of children enrolled at municipal preschools.
  
  
  METHODS
  Longitudinal, controlled intervention study of 24 preschools which were compared before and after an intervention. The control and intervention groups were defined by drawing lots to choose schools that had previously been paired for nutritional status. The intervention consisted of the addition of 10 g of multimixture to the meals provided to children attending the 12 schools in the intervention group. Outcome measures include changes in z scores for the three nutritional indices and hemoglobin values over the 6-month period during which the supplement was added. A multilevel model was used for analyses.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Mean z scores for weight for age at the end of follow-up were 0.40 (+/-1.34) and 0.31 (+/-1.32), for the intervention and control groups respectively. The multilevel analysis demonstrated non-significant differences in favor of the intervention in mean z scores for weight for age (beta 0.05; 95%CI -0.03 to 0.12) and height for age (beta 0.02; 95%CI -0.06 to 0.09). Mean change in hemoglobin was against the intervention, but this was also without significance (beta -0.01; 95%CI -0.36 to 0.34).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Supplementation with 10 g of multimixture did not have a significant effect on any of the nutritional indices or measurements of the municipal preschool pupils studied here.
authors.affiliation: Universidade Federal de Pelotas (UFPel), Pelotas, RS, Brazil. denise@epidemio-ufpel.org.br
authors.forename: Denise P
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: Gigante
authors.forename: Márcia
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Buchweitz
authors.forename: Elizabete
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Helbig
authors.forename: Angela S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Almeida
authors.forename: Cora L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Araújo
authors.forename: Nelson A
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Neumann
authors.forename: Cesar
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Victora
mesh_terms: D001938:Brazil; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D015362:Child Nutrition Disorders / Q000178:diet therapy*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D005527:Food, Fortified; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D012574:Schools