Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40025494›Full record

Trial reportNutrition journal2025

Indicators of improved emotion behavior in 6-14-year-old children following a 4-week placebo controlled prebiotic supplement intervention at home with a parent.

Nicola Johnstone, Kathrin Cohen Kadosh

Registry-linked trialAbstract readRandomized Controlled Trial
In one paragraph

Trial report in Nutrition journal, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT06258135 (At Home Placebo-controlled 8-week GOS Intervention on Emotion Behaviour and Cognition in Children), which is not on this map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

NCT06258135 nacompletednot on this map

At Home Placebo-controlled 8-week GOS Intervention on Emotion Behaviour and Cognition in Children (Age 6-14 Years).

TypeinterventionalSponsorUniversity of SurreyRan2021 to 2022Enrolled53ConditionsEmotional RegulationArmsGalacto-oligosaccharide, Maltodextrin
3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Trial
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors.

Nicola JohnstoneSchool of Psychology, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Surrey, Guildford, GU2 7XH, UK. nicola.johnstone@surrey.ac.uk.
Kathrin Cohen KadoshSchool of Psychology, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Surrey, Guildford, GU2 7XH, UK. k.cohenkadosh@surrey.ac.uk.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundIn this double-blind placebo-controlled randomised intervention we investigated the potential benefits of a prebiotic supplement on children's well-being in a home setting. The primary aim was to determine if this supplement could effectively reduce anxiety, improve mood, and enhance cognitive function, similar to findings in young adults.

methodsFifty-three healthy children, aged 6 to 14, participated in an 8-week trial. The trial consisted of three testing time points; day zero marked the baseline measurement (T1) followed by a 28-day supplement intervention period during which they consumed 5.5 g of the prebiotic galactooligosaccharides (GOS) daily under parental guidance. Endline measures (T2) were conducted on the last day of supplement consumption, with a final follow-up testing session (T3) on day 56. Primary outcomes were trait anxiety using a questionnaire and emotional behavior in a dot-probe task on responses to positive and negative images. Secondary outcomes encompassed depression levels, cognitive function tests, and dietary intake recorded in a 4-day food diary. Additionally, we explored whether parents' emotional behavior had an impact on children's responses.

resultsWhile our statistical analysis did not reveal significant effects of GOS, there were noteworthy trends. Trait anxiety levels decreased over time in both groups, with a more pronounced decrease in the GOS group (after intervention, p =.090; after follow-up, p =.031). The GOS group exhibited reduced negative emotional responses compared to the placebo group (p =.105), and post-trial depression levels decreased in the GOS group over time (p =.015). Although parental emotional responses correlated with various emotional outcomes in children, they did not influence the intervention effects.

conclusionsThese findings suggest positive trends in line with our hypotheses, however further investigation with greater statistical power would be beneficial.

trial registrationRetrospectively registered on https://clinicaltrials.gov/ [NCT06258135] on February 6, 2024.

Indexed as

Dietary SupplementsEmotionsParentsPrebioticsAdolescentAffectAnxietyChildCognitionDepressionDouble-Blind MethodFemaleHumansMaleOligosaccharidesOligosaccharidesPrebioticsAdolescenceAnxietyChildhoodChildren and Young peopleDepressionGOSPrebioticSupplement intervention trial

Identifiers

PMID40025494
PMCPMC11871729

What Socratic holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY-NC-ND
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Registered trials

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.