Effect of zinc supplementation on duration of hospitalization in Tanzanian children presenting with acute pneumonia.

Maulidi R Fataki, Rodrick R Kisenge, Christopher R Sudfeld, Said Aboud, James Okuma, Saurabh Mehta, Donna Spiegelman, Wafaie W Fawzi

Index: J. Trop. Pediatr. 60(2) , 104-11, (2014)

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Abstract

Zinc supplementation prevents incident pneumonia in children; however, the effect for pneumonia treatment remains unclear.A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of zinc supplements (daily 25 mg) adjunct to antibiotic treatment of radiology-confirmed acute pneumonia was conducted among hospitalized children (6-36 months) in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.The trial was stopped early due to low enrollment, primarily owing to exclusion of children outside the age range and >3 days of prior illness. Among children enrolled (n = 94), zinc supplementation indicated no beneficial effect on the duration of hospitalization (IRR: 0.69; 95% CI 0.45-1.06; p = 0.09) or the proportion of children who were hospitalized for <3 days (RR: 0.85; 95% CI: 0.57-1.25; p = 0.40) or <5 days (RR: 1.01; 95% CI: 0.83-1.23; p = 0.92) (IRRs and RRs >1.0 favor zinc).Although underpowered, this randomized trial provided no evidence for a beneficial effect of zinc supplementation adjunct to antibiotics for hospitalized children.