WHO/UNICEF recommend oral rehydration salts (ORS), continued feeding and 10–14 d of Zn supplementation (supp) to treat diarrhea; but preventive Zn supp may provide greater benefit than Zn supp given only for diarrhea. We compared 3 supp strategies in 6,426 children 6–30 mo old randomly assigned to 1 of 4 treatments for 16, 32 or 48 wk: daily preventive supp (7mg Zn/d and ORS+placebo (Pl) for diarrhea), intermittent preventive supp (10mg Zn/d for 10d every 16wk and ORS+Pl for diarrhea), therapeutic supp (daily Pl and ORS+20mg Zn/d for 10d for diarrhea) or control (ORS for diarrhea). Home visits were completed weekly; free treatment was provided for uncomplicated diarrhea (>;3 liquid/semi‐liquid stools/d), fever or malaria. Supp group codes are still masked. Reported adherence to daily supp (93%) did not differ by group. Diarrhea incidence was low (0.5%) and baseline stunting high (28.3%). The 3 supp groups had moderately lower diarrhea incidence (OR=0.76 to 0.80, p<0.001) and gained slightly less length (−0.14 to −0.11 cm/16wk, p=0.002 to 0.011) than the control group, but did not differ from each other (p>;0.45). Differences in diarrhea incidence increased with time and appeared sooner in one supp group. Zn supp reduces diarrhea in this population; greater benefits of one strategy for diarrhea prevention may emerge when codes are revealed. Supports: Thrasher Research Fund and Canadian International Development Agency.
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Becquey et al. (2013) studied this question.