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Nutrition International highlights Canada-Africa partnership to advance nutrition, health and education goals
November 18, 2024
The present study explores whether packaging zinc with oral rehydration salts (ORS) will increase the combined use of both treatments in children (6-59 months) with acute diarrhea in eight districts of Ethiopia. The study also explored the cost-effectiveness of two co-packaging options: ‘central’ (zinc and ORS bundled using a pouch that had instructional message, distributed to health centers) and ‘health center’ (zinc, ORS and a similar pouch distributed to the HCs and bundled by health workers) level bundling.
A cluster-randomised controlled trial was used to compare adherence between ‘central bundling’, ‘health centre’ bundling, bundling without instructional message, and no bundling.
Bundling zinc with ORS using a pouch with instructional messages increases adherence to the treatment. ‘Health center’ level bundling was found to be more cost effective than ‘central bundling’.