Impact of Preventive and Therapeutic Zinc Supplementation Programs Among Young Children

Summary

Zinc supplementation can either be provided in a lower daily dose to prevent zinc deficiency or in a higher dose for 10-14 days as part of the treatment of diarrhea. It is important to determine how best to integrate programs designed either to prevent zinc deficiency or to treat diarrhea.

The overall objective of this project is to determine the most effective approach to prevent zinc deficiency and treat diarrhea, such that a single approach could provide the maximal beneficial impact on the health and nutritional status of young children and greatest simplicity of implementation.

Conditions

• Zinc Deficiency
• Diarrhea
• Malaria

Interventions

DIETARY_SUPPLEMENT

Daily preventive Zn; placebo treatment

7 mg zinc / day and placebo supplement during diarrhea episodes

DIETARY_SUPPLEMENT

Therapeutic Zn; daily placebo

20 mg zinc / day for 10 days during diarrhea episodes and daily placebo supplement

DIETARY_SUPPLEMENT

Intermittent Zn; placebo treatment

10 mg zinc for 10 days every 3 months, placebo supplements daily for all other days during 12 months; placebo supplements during diarrhea episodes

OTHER

Surveillance control group

Active weekly morbidity surveillance for 3 months. New surveillance control group will be randomly assigned to intervention groups every 3 months

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Université Polytechnique de Bobo-Dioulasso

  collaborator OTHER

• Helen Keller International

  collaborator OTHER

• Thrasher Research Fund

  collaborator OTHER

• Canadian International Development Agency

  collaborator OTHER_GOV

• University of California, Davis

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Kenneth H Brown, MD · University of California, Davis

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

QUADRUPLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

6 Months

Max Age

27 Months

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2010-12-31

Primary Completion

2012-02-29

Completion

2012-02-29

Countries

• Burkina Faso

Study Locations