Mobile phone call reminders to improve oral rehydration salt and zinc adherence for acute diarrhea in children: a single-center, randomized controlled trial.

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc in this randomized controlled trial publication.

Despite this, caregivers' adherence to ORS and zinc is often unsatisfactory due to factors such as forgetfulness, resolution of symptoms, and underestimation of the disease's severity.

This study assessed the effect of mobile call reminders on ORS and zinc tablet adherence among children with acute diarrhea in a secondary-level health facility in Kwara State, Nigeria.

Who Took Part

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were infants, young children and adults, both men and women.

Using an open-label, randomized controlled trial design, this study compared caregiver-child pairs with acute diarrhea aged 6-59 months who received standard instructions (SI) alone (control group) and an intervention group (IG) who received SI plus phone call reminders on days three and seven of zinc sulfate therapy.

How the Study Was Run

The design is described as randomized and open-label.

Random assignment meant chance, not the researchers, decided who got Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc and who got the comparison, which limits bias.

Everyone knew when Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc was being given (open label), which is simpler to run but leaves more room for expectations to affect what is reported.

The primary outcome measures were independent and combined adherence to ORS and zinc therapy.

The secondary outcomes were independent and combined adherence scores, defined as the percentage of times the ORS was given post-diarrhea and the percentage of prescribed zinc tablets administered out of ten.

What Was Measured

This study assessed the effect of mobile call reminders on ORS and zinc tablet adherence among children with acute diarrhea in a secondary-level health facility in Kwara State, Nigeria.

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Reminder Systems, Fluid Therapy, Diarrhea, Nigeria, Cell Phone, Zinc and Acute Disease.

The authors tagged it with the keywords Acute diarrhea management, Mobile phone call reminders, Outpatient and Underfives.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized and open-label study of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc.

Its findings take up roughly 5 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2024 (BMC health services research), a journal based in England.

More context: the Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc compound page, all human trials.