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Zinc supplementation for diarrhea treatment in infants 1‐5 mo of age in Pakistan, India, and Ethiopia
Author(s) -
Walker Christa L. Fischer,
Bhutta Zulfiqar,
Bhandari Nita,
Teka Telehun,
Shahid Farhana,
Taneja Sunita,
Black Robert
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.20.4.a557-c
Subject(s) - diarrhea , medicine , pediatrics , traditional medicine
This randomized, placebo controlled trial assessed the safety and efficacy of 10mg zinc supplementation for the treatment of diarrhea in infants and assessed the effect of supplementation on morbidity and growth in the 2 months following treatment. 1110 infants less than 6 mo of age with acute diarrhea received either zinc or placebo for 14 days. Infants were visited every 3 days until the diarrhea episode was over and weekly for 8 weeks following. The geometric mean duration of the diarrhea episode was 0.21 days longer among infants receiving zinc vs. those receiving placebo, but no difference was observed after controlling for sex, exclusive breastfeeding and length for age Z score. Rates of vomiting and spitting up were slightly higher in the zinc group but were very low in both groups. There was no difference between supplementation groups in the incidence of diarrhea, but zinc‐supplemented infants had a higher prevalence of diarrhea days (RR = 1.20, p=0.03) compared to placebo‐supplemented infants. Weekly prevalence rates for pneumonia and respiratory infections were similar between supplementation groups. There was no observed effect on growth. Young infants do not appear to benefit from zinc supplementation for the treatment of diarrhea. Funding sources: The Johns Hopkins Family Health and Child Survival and Global Research Activity Cooperative Agreement with USAID.