ABSTRACT
Aim to evaluated the effect of milk supplementation enriched with iron and zinc on indicators of growth, physical capacity and cognitive performance in underweight school-children. Method Two-armed, randomized controlled double-blind trial was performed in several primary schools in Jakarta and Surakarta, Indonesia. A total of 245 underweight schoolchildren aged 7-9 years living in urban poor areas of Jakarta and Solo were randomly allocated to receive two cups of iron-zinc fortifi ed-milk (n = 121) or non-iron-zinc fortifi ed milk (n= 124) supplementation daily for six months. Biochemical indicators, anthropometric indices, physical capacity and cognitive performance were measured at before and after the supplementation. Results The study shows that between the fortifi ed and non-fortifi ed milk group, there was no signifi cant different in haemoglobin increase (0.01 + 0.96 mg/dL versus 0.17 + 0.81 mg/dL) nor serum ferritin increase (12.77 + 25.50 mcg/dL versus 14.99 + 29.56 mcg/dL). Unexpectedly, decreased in serum zinc was found in both groups (3.01 + 3.24 mMol/dL and 3.12 + 3.71 mMol/dL). There was signifi cant higher increment (P=0.045) in body weight among the fortifi ed milk group (1.31 + 0.69 kg) as compared to the non-fortifi ed group (1.13 + 0.69 kg). Consistently, there was signifi cant increase (P=0.025) in the indicator of underweight (WAZ) among the fortifi ed milk group (1.47 + 0.50) as compared to the non-fortifi ed group (1.33 + 0.47). There was signifi cant improvement (P=0.001) of cognitive performance, i.e. coding test-score among the fortifi ed group (12.74 + 11.76) as compared to the non-fortifi ed group (8.31 + 9.60), but there was no signifi cant difference found in the improvement of physical capacity score in both groups (10323.77 + 9253.83 versus 8435.94 + 8824.55). Conclusion Among underweight schoolchildren aged 7-9 y, supplementation of milk fortifi ed with iron and zinc can provide better growth, and better speed processing of learning ability.