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Efficacy of Zinc Therapy in Acute Diarrhoea in Young Children
This study is currently recruiting participants.
Verified by International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh, May 2006
First Received: May 11, 2006   Last Updated: May 16, 2006   History of Changes
Sponsored by: International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh
Information provided by: International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT00325247
  Purpose

Diarrhoea continues to be a major cause of mortality and morbidity in young children especially in many developing countries. Although the mortality burden of diarrhoea has substantially reduced, the morbidity pattern remained almost unchanged. Recent randomized controlled supplementation trials in developing countries have consistently shown that zinc has the potential to reduce the duration of diarrhoea as well as has preventive effect on childhood diarhroea in subsequent months. Currently, international health agencies recommend zinc as an important adjunct therapy to treat diarrhoea in developing countries where zinc deficiency is highly prevalent and diet is poor in zinc. The recommendation is to provide 20 mg elemental zinc daily for 10 days during each episode of diarrhoea.

This study aims at evaluating the relative efficacy of two length of 20 mg zinc therapy (5 vs 10 days) during acute diarrhoea in a rural community in a community-based individually randomized placebo-controlled trial with 20 mg zinc daily and will be conducted in seven villages in the ICDDR,B Matlab study area. The study will require 2050 acute dirrhoeal episodes to be treated who will be randomly allocated to one of the two treatment schedules (20 mg of zinc daily for 5 or 10 days). Children who will be allocated to the shorter duration therapy will receive placebo for the remaining days to complete 10-day treatment. Female Field Workers (FFWs) will conduct diarrhoea surveillance and administer zinc daily at home. Data will be analyzed using appropriate statistical procedure.

Findings of this study will be immensely valuable for deciding recommendation for the duration of zinc therapy in the management of acute diarrhoea in young children and will have profound programmatic and policy implications for scaling up zinc intervention in the community.


Condition Intervention Phase
Acute Watery Diarrhoea
Drug: ZINC
Phase III

Study Type: Interventional
Study Design: Treatment, Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo Control, Parallel Assignment, Efficacy Study
Official Title: Efficacy of Short Course Zinc Therapy (5 Vs 10 d) With 20 Mg Elemental Zinc Daily in the Treatment of Acute Diarrhoea: A Double-Blind Individually Randomized Controlled Community Trial.

Resource links provided by NLM:


Further study details as provided by International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh:

Primary Outcome Measures:
  • Preventive effect of zinc therapy on diarrhoea during the subsequent three month 14 days of enrollment
  • Assess the acceptability of zinc therapy during diarrhoea in young children.

Secondary Outcome Measures:
  • Compare the duration of current episode in two groups receiving 5 d vs 10 d zinc.
  • Compare the proportion of children developing prolonged (>10 d) or persistent diarrheoa (>14 d).

Estimated Enrollment: 2050
Study Start Date: February 2005
Estimated Study Completion Date: May 2006
Detailed Description:

The proposed study will use a prospective, double-blind, randomized design in which all study children with diarrhoea will receive zinc treatment for the first 5 days and then they will receive either zinc or a placebo for the second 5 days of the 10 day course according to random allocation to evaluate the efficacy of shorter course of zinc treatment (5 days vs 10 days) during diarrhoea in children less than 5 years of age. Children with diarrhoea will be detected through routine daily surveillance by trained Female Field Worker (FFW) in the study area and will be enrolled into the study soon after detection and the informed consent of the parent is obtained.

Zinc will be administered daily by FFWs as 20 mg elemental zinc as single dose for 5 or 10 days. Dispersible zinc tablets in blister pack produced by Nutriset® used in the national zinc scaling up project will be used for the study. The placebo will also be dispersible tablets identical and undistinguishable from zinc tablet in terms of appearance, colour, taste and flavour will be obtained from the same manufacturer. The first episode of a child will be treated as part of this study although children will be encouraged to take zinc if s/he develops diarrhoea during the study period. The dose is about double the Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) for the children which has been chosen considering the poor zinc status of the children to be included and replenishment of possible loss of zinc during diarrhoeal episode and also to be consistent with the current recommendation in the zinc scaling up initiative. Outcome will be assessed daily during routine visit using a precoded questionnaire. Although all the children will receive zinc treatment for one of the two durations, ones who will be randomly assigned to shorter duration (5 day) will receive zinc for the first 5 days and then placebo for the rest of the days to complete 10 days intake.

  Eligibility

Ages Eligible for Study:   1 Month to 59 Months
Genders Eligible for Study:   Both
Accepts Healthy Volunteers:   No
Criteria

Inclusion Criteria:

  1. Children less than 5 years with acute watery diarrhoea less than 48 h of duration
  2. No medication received other than ORS or home solution
  3. Absence of complication or co-morbidities.
  4. Absence of severe dehydration

Exclusion Criteria:

  1. Age greater than 5 years
  2. Diarrhoea more than 48 h duration
  3. Unable to eat or drink
  4. Already received multiple treatment including zinc
  5. Presence of co-morbidities
  6. Severe dehydration
  Contacts and Locations
Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT00325247

Contacts
Contact: Dewan S Alam, PhD 8860523-32 ext 2209 dsalam@icddrb.org

Locations
Bangladesh
ICDDR,B Recruiting
Dhaka, Bangladesh, 1000
Contact: Dewan S Alam, PhD     8860523-32 ext 2209     dsalam@icddrb.org    
Principal Investigator: Dewan S Alam, PhD            
Sponsors and Collaborators
International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh
Investigators
Principal Investigator: Dewan S Alam, PhD ICDDR,B: Centre for Health and Population Research
  More Information

No publications provided

Study ID Numbers: 2004-018
Study First Received: May 11, 2006
Last Updated: May 16, 2006
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT00325247     History of Changes
Health Authority: Bangladesh: Ethical Review Committee

Keywords provided by International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh:
ZINC SUPPLEMENTATION
ACUTE DIARRHOEA
UNDER FIVE CHILDREN
RURAL BANGLADESH

Study placed in the following topic categories:
Signs and Symptoms
Diarrhea
Signs and Symptoms, Digestive
Zinc
Trace Elements
Micronutrients

Additional relevant MeSH terms:
Signs and Symptoms
Diarrhea
Signs and Symptoms, Digestive
Growth Substances
Physiological Effects of Drugs
Zinc
Trace Elements
Micronutrients
Pharmacologic Actions

ClinicalTrials.gov processed this record on September 01, 2009