The Efficacy of Zinc as Adjunct Therapy in the Treatment of Severe Pneumonia in Children

July 3, 2009 updated by: Makerere University

The Efficacy of Zinc as Adjunct Therapy in the Treatment of Severe Pneumonia in Children Admitted to Mulago Hospital, Uganda.

Pneumonia is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in children in developing countries. Zinc deficiency leads to impairment in tissue repair and immunodeficiency in children.At least two randomised controlled trials have shown that zinc supplementation improves the outcome of severe pneumonia in children (reducing duration of hospital stay and complications related to pneumonia).

However, there are conflicting results from other randomised controlled trials about its efficacy in children with pneumonia.The purpose of the current study is to determine the efficacy of zinc as adjunct therapy for in severe pneumonia in children aged 6-59 months. We hypothesize that the proportion of children who recover from severe pneumonia following zinc adjunct therapy [(10 mg once daily for seven days) for children aged <12 months and 20 mg daily for children aged ≥12 months]will be higher than the proportion of children who recover from placebo therapy.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Zinc deficiency is a global nutritional problem affecting people with a low socioeconomic status in developing and developed countries. There is a high prevalence of zinc deficiency in Uganda as documented by Bitarakwate et al.Two clinical studies have shown that zinc supplementation improves the outcome of severe pneumonia in children by reducing duration of hospital stay and complications related to pneumonia. However, there are conflicting results from some previous studies about its usefulness in patients with pneumonia.

The objective of this study is to determine the effect of zinc supplement as adjunct therapy in the treatment of severe pneumonia in children less than five years admitted to Mulago hospital, Kampala, Uganda.

This will be a randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial of zinc adjucnt therapy. Three hundred and twenty eight children with severe pneumonia will be randomised to receive either zinc (a daily dose of 20 mg for children more than one of age and 10mg for those less than one year or placebo once daily for seven days.

The primary outcome will be Time taken to :normalisation of respiratory rate, temperature and oxygen saturation.

Secondary outcome:Proportion of study children who will die during the follow up period,Proportion of children who develop drug adverse effects data will be analysed using Kaplan Meir survival curves.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Anticipated)

328

Phase

  • Phase 3

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • Uganda
      • Kampala, Uganda, P O 7072
        • Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, Makerere University

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

6 months to 4 years (Child)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Children aged 6- 59 months with cough, difficult breathing and chest indrawing
  • Written informed consent from the caretaker

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Children with known heart disease
  • Children on medication with Zinc supplements
  • Children with obstructive air way disease
  • Children with active measles
  • Known intolerance or allergy to zinc or zinc-containing products

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Double

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Placebo Comparator: Placebo
Drug: Placebo
Placebo
Experimental: Zinc
Zinc acetate
Drug: Zinc acetate

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time taken for normalisation of respiratory rate
Time taken for normalisation of Temperature
Time taken for oxygen saturation to normalise

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Proportion of study children who will die during the follow up period
Proportion of children who develop drug adverse effects

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Makerere University

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Maheswari s Gurusamy, MBBS, Department of Paediatrics and Child Health Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

September 1, 2006

Primary Completion (Actual)

March 1, 2007

Study Completion (Actual)

March 1, 2007

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

September 6, 2006

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 6, 2006

First Posted (Estimate)

September 7, 2006

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

July 7, 2009

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

July 3, 2009

Last Verified

July 1, 2009

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • HD1120041349X

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

Clinical Trials on Pneumonia

Clinical Trials on Placebo

Search Similar Trials

Sponsors and Collaborators

Medical Conditions

Drug Interventions

CROs by country

CROs in Bahrain

Conditions

Rare Diseases

Drug Interventions

Dietary Supplements

Sponsor/Collaborators

Locations

3
Subscribe