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. 2021 Jan 22;13(2):316. doi: 10.3390/nu13020316

Table 2.

Summary of findings of calcium fortification (+minerals/other) by population group.

Outcomes Mean Difference (MD) of Fortified Versus Control Group * (95% CI) No. of Participants (Studies) Certainty of the Evidence (GRADE)
Calcium Intake (mg/day)—Children MD 306.17 higher
198.97 higher to 413.38 higher)
764
(4 RCTs)
⨁⨁⨁◯
MODERATE a
Calcium Intake (mg/day)—Adults MD 471.47 higher
(266.51 higher to 676.42 higher)
315
(3 RCTs)
⨁⨁◯◯
LOW a,b
Calcium Intake (mg/day)—Postmenopausal Women MD 1210 higher
(1162.8 higher to 1257.2 higher)
50
(1 RCT)
⨁⨁◯◯
LOW c
Weight (kg)—Children MD 0.22 higher
(0.95 lower to 1.38 higher)
667
(6 RCTs)
⨁⨁⨁◯
MODERATE d
Weight (kg)—Adults MD 1.85 higher
(0.94 lower to 4.64 higher)
150
(1 RCT)
⨁⨁⨁◯
MODERATE e
Weight (kg)—Postmenopausal Women (Vit D cointervention in both groups) MD 0.03 lower
(4.11 lower to 4.05 higher)
79
(1 RCT)
⨁⨁⨁◯
MODERATE e
Height (cm)—Children MD 0.83 higher
(0 to 1.65 higher)
1164
(7 RCTs)
⨁⨁⨁◯
MODERATE f
BMD Femoral neck (g/cm2)—Children MD 0.02 higher
(0.01 higher to 0.04 higher)
620
(5 RCTs)
⨁⨁⨁◯
MODERATE f
BMD Femoral neck (g/cm2)—Adults MD 0.01 lower
(0.04 lower to 0.03 higher)
150
(1 RCT)
⨁⨁⨁◯
MODERATE g

Quality of Evidence Symbol: ⨁⨁⨁◯ Moderate, ⨁⨁◯◯ Low. * Studies that compared the fortified food with similar unfortified food, with a food with lower content of calcium, with usual diet, or with supplement placebo; a. I2 > 70% but not important clinical heterogeneity; b. 2/3 studies with high Risk of Bias (RoB) for allocation concealment and blinding of participant and personnel; c. The only study for this subgroup has high RoB for allocation concealment and blinding of participant and personnel; d. 3 out of six studies present moderate or high RoB for most domains; e. Wide 95% confidence interval; f. Most studies present moderate or high RoB for many domains; g. This is a single study with high RoB in the domain incomplete outcome data. Effects in primary and secondary outcomes are presented in Table S1.