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©The Author(s) 2025. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Pediatr. Dec 9, 2025; 14(4): 109022
Published online Dec 9, 2025. doi: 10.5409/wjcp.v14.i4.109022
Published online Dec 9, 2025. doi: 10.5409/wjcp.v14.i4.109022
Efficacy of prophylactic intermittent zinc supplementation for reducing acute respiratory infections and diarrhoea in infants: A randomized controlled trial
Chandra Mohan Kumar, Department of Pediatrics, Hamdard Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, New Delhi 110062, Delhi, India
Chandra Mohan Kumar, Arnab Ghorui, Karuna Hamsay, Department of Paediatrics, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Patna 801507, Bihār, India
Co-first authors: Chandra Mohan Kumar and Arnab Ghorui.
Author contributions: Chandra MK conceptualized and designed the study, drafted the initial manuscript, critically reviewed and revised the manuscript and gave final approval; Arnab G was involved in conceptualization, designed the data collection forms, collected data, carried out the initial analyses, and manuscript writing, and approached the parents to obtain written informed consent; Karuna H coordinated and supervised data collection; Chandra MK acts as the guarantor for this study.
Institutional review board statement: Institutional ethics committee approval number: AIIMS/Pat/IEC/2022/944.
Clinical trial registration statement: Clinical Trial Registration: Clinical Trials Registry – India, Ref No. CTRI/2022/04/053869, dated 08/09/2022. https://ctri.nic.in/Clinicaltrials/pmaindet2.php?EncHid=Njg3MzE=&Enc=&userName.
Informed consent statement: Written informed consent was obtained from the parents prior to enrolment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.
CONSORT 2010 statement: The authors have read the CONSORT 2010 statement, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CONSORT 2010 statement.
Data sharing statement: Deidentified individual participant data (including data dictionaries) will be made available, in addition to study protocols, the statistical analysis plan, and the informed consent form. The data will be made available upon publication to researchers who provide a methodologically sound proposal for achieving the goals of the approved proposal. Proposals should be submitted to [arnabmck999@gmail.com] Registry name, registration number, web link to study the registry, and data sharing statement.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Arnab Ghorui, Department of Paediatrics, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Phulwarisharif, Patna 801507, Bihār, India. arnabmck999@gmail.com
Received: May 6, 2025
Revised: May 31, 2025
Accepted: September 19, 2025
Published online: December 9, 2025
Processing time: 182 Days and 19.7 Hours
Revised: May 31, 2025
Accepted: September 19, 2025
Published online: December 9, 2025
Processing time: 182 Days and 19.7 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: This randomized controlled trial evaluated the efficacy of prophylactic intermittent zinc supplementation in reducing acute respiratory infections (ARI) and diarrhoea among infants. The study demonstrated that infants receiving zinc supplementation had a significantly lower incidence of ARI and diarrhoea, as well as greater gains in weight and length, compared to the control group. These findings suggest that intermittent zinc supplementation, administered alongside routine vaccinations, is an effective and low-cost strategy to reduce infant morbidity and mortality from ARI and diarrhoea, and can be feasibly implemented in resource-limited healthcare settings.