The impact of antenatal zinc supplementation on infantile diarrhea

Abstract EN

Objective: To show whether zinc supplementation during pregnancy would reduce diarrhea in infants offspring.

Study design: An intervention study of antenatal zinc supplementation conducted during 2011-2012 in low income areas in Cairo, Egypt.

Participating ladies were randomly assigned to receive daily supplementation with 20 mg zinc during second and/or third trimester of pregnancy.

Infants of mothers supplemented and non supplemented with zinc (control) were assessed regarding diarrheal morbidity, dietary intake and anthropometric measures from birth through age 12 months.

Results: The incidence of diarrhea was reduced among infants of mothers prenatally supplemented with zinc compared with control group.

Mean number of diarrheal episodes in infants of supplemented mothers was0.84/ infant (SD0.44) compared to 1.11 episodes/ infant (SD0.50} during first 6 months of age (p.

0.01) , the mean duration of diarrheal episode was 2.64 days (SD1.77) in supplemented group compared to 3.36 days (SD2.21) in the control group (p.

0.01) in this age group.

The differences in the age group 6-12 months are statistically not significant.

The main birth weight was 3.320 kg (SD 0.32) in the supplemented group compared to 3.139 kg (SD0.38) in the control group (p.

0.004).

Conclusion: Prenatal zinc intake protects against diarrheal morbidity in infants offspring.-