Placebo Controlled Trial of Zinc Supplementation on duration of Hospital Stay in Children with Pneumonia

Background: Pneumonia is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in children younger than 5 years of age. Zinc may have an important protective role in cases of childhood pneumonia. Objectives: To study the effect of zinc supplemen-tation on duration of hospital stay in children (6 mon-ths to 5 years) with pneumonia. Methodology: This Randomized control trial was conducted in the Department of Paediatrics Unit – I, King Edward Medical University / Mayo Hospital Chairman and Professor, Department of Paediatrics, Director Medical Education, King Edward Medical University / Mayo Hospital, Lahore Lahore from January to December 2011. After con-sent, 150 children from 6 months to 5 years of age with pneumonia consistent with WHO ARI definition along with crepitations on auscultation were registered by non-probability purposive sampling and were randomized into treatment group (Group A) and pla-cebo group (Group B). Seventy five children supple-mented with zinc for 14 days while 75 children were supplemented with placebo. Outcome measure was duration of hospital stay. T-test was used to compare the groups. Results: Out of total study population of 150, majo-rity (35%) of children were below 2 years. There was male predominance (64%). Mean duration of hospital stay was significantly reduced in treatment group (p value 0.05). Conclusion: Zinc supplementation results in statisti-cally significant reduction in the duration of hospital stay in children (6 months to 5 years) with pneumonia.