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Abstract
Background: Acute watery diarrhoea is among the major causes of death in children under five globally. Zinc supplementation, recommended by WHO and UNICEF as an adjunct to oral rehydration solutions (ORS), is believed to improve recovery outcomes. However, evidence from real-world tertiary care settings in Pakistan remains limited.
Objective: The objective of our study was to determine the effect of zinc supplementation on the duration of acute diarrhoea in children aged between 6 and 5 years admitted to a tertiary care hospital in Swabi, Pakistan.
Methods: A randomized controlled trial was conducted among 74 children (37 per group) admitted with acute diarrhoea. The Zinc group received zinc supplementation in addition to standard treatment, whereas the control group received standard treatment alone. Primary outcome was duration of diarrhoea. Data analysis was done by using SPSS version 27 applying independent t-tests for mean comparison; p < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.
Results: Children in the zinc group experienced a shorter mean time to resolution of diarrhoea compared with controls (3.94 ± 0.97 vs. 4.38 ± 1.09 days), with a mean difference of 0.44 days. Although this difference favored zinc supplementation, it did not reach statistical significance (p = 0.072; 95% CI: –0.04 to 0.92). Baseline characteristics between groups were comparable.
Conclusion: Zinc supplementation was associated with a trend toward shorter diarrhoeal duration in children, consistent with international evidence, though statistical significance was not achieved in this study. Findings highlight the need for larger multicenter trials in Pakistan to strengthen evidence and support broader implementation of zinc in paediatric diarrhoeal management.