Role of zinc supplementation in young children with acute watery diarrhoea

Objective: the objective of this study is to find out the role of zinc supplementation in young children with acute watery diarrhoea. setting: department of paediatrics,lahore general hospital lahore. duration: march 2007 to march 2008. study design: quasi-experimental study. method: sample was taken by none probability convenience technique and 300 children of both sexes aging 6 month to 02 years of acute water diarrhoea were included. these cases were divided into two groups,first 150 patients as study group who were given 20mg of zinc daily and next 150 patients as control group who were treated without zinc supplementation. reduction of stools on follow up at day 7 and day 14 was compared between two groups. results: total number of patients in our study was 300. the mean age in study group was 13.1 ± 6.3 months and in control group was 13.1 ± 6.4 months. the mean stool frequency on first follow up visit in study group was 3.2 ± 1.5 stools and in control group was 4.2 ± 1.6 stools. the mean stool frequency on second follow up visit in study group was 2.5 ± 2.0 stools in control group was 3.6 ± 2.3 stools. in the distribution of final results,in study group 122 (81.3%) patients improved and 28 (18.7%) not improved after two weeks of treatment. in control group 107 (71.3%) patients improved and 43 (28.7%) patients did not. conclusion: zinc supplementation is an effective in reducing frequency and severity of acute watery diarrhoea in children.