Authors
Abstract
Background and Purpose: Diarrhea is considered as one of the mortality causes in children less than five years of age in Iran. Often it is treated with either expensive method such as IV serum therapy or less effective drugs; while it is possible to treat it with more effective and simpler methods and to reduce the number of deaths due to diarrhea. The present study is, therefore, conducted to compare the effects of oral zinc sulfate and ORS on the severity and duration of diarrhea in the rural children of Neyshabour in 1384 (2005).
Materials and Methods: This experiential study was conducted on children under five years of age admitted to selected rural Health Clinics in Neyshabour, Iran; 160 children with viral diarrhea and not taking antibiotics were taken as the study sample and divided into control (taking ORS only) and experimental (taking ORS plus zinc supplement) groups. Questionnaires were used for data collection and the obtained data were analyzed in SPSS.
Results: Acute diarrhea was the case in 83.3% of the patients. The highest frequency of excretion indication the severity before treatment was 6 times a day in 36.7% of the cases. While after treatment it was reduced to 2 times a day in 52.3% of the cases. A significant relationship was found between the severity and duration of diarrhea before and after taking zin sulfat (P
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