Impact of Home Zinc Treatment for Acute Diarrhea in Children

March 8, 2010 updated by: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Clinical Effectiveness and Preventive Impact of Home Zinc Treatment for Acute Diarrhea in Children: A Cluster-randomized Field Trial in Rural Western Kenya

Background. Zinc deficiency is common in Africa. It has been shown in Asia that zinc as treatment for diarrhea can shorten the course of episodes of diarrhea, as well as prevent future episodes. The use of zinc at home to treat diarrhea in an African setting, where malaria, HIV and malnutrition are common, has not been well-studied.

Objective. To evaluate if zinc treatment for diarrhea given at home in Kenyan children will decrease the community prevalence of diarrhea more than zinc given only in the clinic Work planned. We propose to do a community-randomized intervention study of 10 days of dispersible zinc tablets given in the home, in addition to ORS, to treat diarrhea in children under-5 years of age living in a rural part of Bondo District. The comparison group will be children who receive zinc and ORS in the clinic only. The primary outcome will be a comparison of the prevalence of diarrhea in home zinc versus nonhome zinc villages. Secondary outcomes will be the incidence of repeat episodes of diarrhea, the duration of diarrheal illness, the prevalence of acute respiratory infection, and the effect of malaria infection on treatment with zinc. Thirty-three villages (approximately 1300 children) will be enrolled and children will be followed for 1 year.

Significance of results. If this study shows zinc given at home to be effective, this might be considered by the Kenyan MOH as an essential component of the treatment of diarrhea in children at the community level.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

3000

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

  • Kenya
      • Kisumu, Kenya
        • Kenya Medical Research Institute

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

2 months to 4 years (Child)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • All children 2 to 59 months of age in households within 33 selected villages

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Children under 2 months of age will not be eligible for enrollment, until they reach 2 months of age as the role of zinc has not been well-studied in neonates. Children of parents who do not give written informed consent for their participation will not be enrolled.

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: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: 1
Mothers recieve a blister pack of zinc tablets in home every two months for use when child in home under 5 years has diarrhea. ORS satchets also given. Instructions on when and how to use zinc and ORS and when to take child in clinic are given by community health worker. Zinc will also be given in clinic if child visits clinic with diarrhea and has not yet started zinc at home.
Drug: zinc
10 day blister pack of 20 mg zinc disperable tablets, 1 tablet qd for children 6 months to 4 years, 1/2 tablet qd for children 2-5 months
Active Comparator: 2
Mothers recieve ORS satchets at home every two months for use when child in home under 5 years has diarrhea. Instructions on when and how to use ORS and when to take child in clinic are given by community health worker. Zinc will be given in clinic if child visits clinic with diarrhea.
Drug: zinc
10 day blister pack of 20 mg zinc disperable tablets, 1 tablet qd for children 6 months to 4 years, 1/2 tablet qd for children 2-5 months

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
To assess if access to zinc treatment for diarrhea in the home in addition to zinc treatment of diarrhea in the clinic leads to a greater reduction in the prevalence of diarrhea than giving zinc for treatment of diarrhea in the clinic only
Time Frame: One year
One year

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
To assess if access to zinc treatment for diarrhea in the home in addition to zinc treatment of diarrhea in the clinic decreases the likelihood of recurrent diarrhea episodes, acute respiratory infections, and antimicrobial use
Time Frame: one year
one year

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Collaborators

International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh
Kenya Medical Research Institute

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Daniel R Feikin, MD, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

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

Helpful Links

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

October 1, 2007

Primary Completion (Actual)

April 1, 2009

Study Completion (Actual)

April 1, 2009

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

September 17, 2007

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 17, 2007

First Posted (Estimate)

September 18, 2007

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

March 9, 2010

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 8, 2010

Last Verified

March 1, 2010

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • CDC-NCPDCID-4678

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.

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