Trial reportEuropean journal of pediatrics2015
Demonstration of the effectiveness of zinc in diarrhoea of children living in Switzerland.
Trial report in European journal of pediatrics, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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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.
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 20 citations in OpenAlex.
- Zinc supplementation for acute and persistent watery diarrhoea in children: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Journal of global health · 2024Pooled it
- Oral zinc for treating diarrhoea in children.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2016Pooled it
- Serum zinc response to standard therapy in acute versus persistent pediatric diarrhea: a prospective comparative study.Sudanese journal of paediatrics · 2026Article
- Acute gastroenteritis-changes to the recommended original oral rehydrating salts: a review.Frontiers in pediatrics · 2023Review
- Zinc Prophylaxis to Reduce Mortality and Morbidity in Under-5 Children: Clinical and Global Health Points of View.Global pediatric health · 2023Article
- Paracellular Filtration Secretion Driven by Mechanical Force Contributes to Small Intestinal Fluid Dynamics.Medical sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- Acute Infectious Diarrhea and Gastroenteritis in Children.Current infectious disease reports · 2020Review
- Effects of Lactose-Restricted Regimen in Breastfeeding Children with Acute Diarrhea.International journal of preventive medicine · 2020Article
- Effect of Zinc Supplementation on the Frequency and Consistency of Stool in Children with Acute Diarrhea.Cureus · 2019Article
- Effect of dose reduction of supplemental zinc for childhood diarrhoea: study protocol for a double-masked, randomised controlled trial in India and Tanzania.BMJ paediatrics open · 2019Article
- The ZnBiochimica et biophysica acta. Molecular basis of disease · 2017Article
- Adherence to zinc supplementation guidelines for the treatment of diarrhea among children under-five in Uttar Pradesh, India.Journal of global health · 2015Article
- Biomarkers of Nutrition for Development (BOND)-Zinc Review.The Journal of nutrition · 2015Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
unlabelledWe designed a double-blinded randomized clinical trial of zinc (10 or 20 mg of zinc sulphate for 2-5 month-old or 6-59 month-old children, respectively, during 10 days) vs. placebo in otherwise healthy children aged 2 months to 5 years who presented with acute diarrhoea (i.e. ≥3 stools/day for less than 72 h). Eighty-seven patients (median age 14 months; range 3.1-58.3) were analysed in an intention-to-treat approach. Forty-two patients took zinc and 45 placebo. There was no difference in the duration nor in the frequency of diarrhoea, but only 5% of the zinc group still had diarrhoea at 120 h of treatment compared to 20% in the placebo group (P = 0.05). Thirty-one patients (13 zinc and 18 placebo) were available for per-protocol analyses. The median (IQR) duration of diarrhoea in zinc-treated patients was 47.5 h (18.3-72) and differed significantly from the placebo group (median 76.3; IQR 52.8-137) (P = 0.03). The frequency of diarrhoea was also lower in the zinc group (P = 0.02).
conclusionzinc treatment decreases the frequency and severity of diarrhoea in children aged 2 months to 5 years living in Switzerland. However, the intention-to-treat analysis reveals compliance issues that question the proper duration of treatment and the choice of optimal pharmaceutical formulation.
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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 OpenQuestion graph.