Table 1.
Search strategy: MEDLINE February 2010 [22].
| No. | Search Term | Results |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | randomised controlled trial.pt. | 280,821 |
| 2 | controlled clinical trial.pt. | 79,998 |
| 3 | randomised.ab. | 196,604 |
| 4 | placebo.ab. | 117,891 |
| 5 | clinical trials as topic.sh. | 146,242 |
| 6 | randomly.ab. | 145,491 |
| 7 | trial.ab. | 203,467 |
| 8 | randomised.ab. | 38,423 |
| 9 | 6 or 3 or 7 or 2 or 8 or 1 or 4 or 5 | 734,511 |
| 10 | (animals not (human and animals)).sh. | 4,482,479 |
| 11 | 9 not 10 | 642,665 |
| 12 | (cohort* or “case control*” or cross-sectional* or “cross sectional” or case-control* or prospective or “systematic review*”).mp. | 768,885 |
| 13 | exp meta-analysis/ or expmulticenter study/ or follow-up studies/ or prospective studies/ or intervention studies/ or epidemiologic studies/ or case-control studies/ or exp cohort studies/ or longitudinal studies/ or cross-sectional studies/ | 1,013,635 |
| 14 | 13 or 12 | 1,203,767 |
| 15 | 14 not 10 | 1,154,385 |
| 16 | 11 or 15 | 1,599,094 |
| 17 | ((zinc or Zn or zinc sulphate or zinc gluconate or zinc acetate or methionine or zinc isotope*) adj3 (intake* or diet* or supplement* or deplet* or status or serum or plasma or leukocyte or concentration* or expos* or fortif* or urine or hair)).ti,ab. | 16,681 |
| 18 | Nutritional Support/ or Dietary Supplements/ or nutritional requirements/ or Breast feeding/ or exp infant food/ or bottle feeding/ or infant formula/ | 63,098 |
| 19 | exp Nutritional Status/ or exp Deficiency Diseases/ or supplementation/ or diet supplementation/ or dietary intake/ or exp diet restriction/ or exp mineral intake/ or Diet/ or Food, Fortified/ or nutrition assessment/ or Nutritive Value/ | 176,014 |
| 20 | (intake* or diet* or supplement* or deplet* or status or serum or plasma or leukocyte or concentration* or expos* or fortif* or urine or hair).ti,ab. | 3,166,092 |
| 21 | 18 or 19 or 20 | 3,263,114 |
| 22 | zinc/ | 41,027 |
| 23 | 22 and 21 | 20,745 |
| 24 | 23 or 17 | 26,943 |
| 25 | 24 and 16 | 2410 |