Cochrane · systematic review · CD009384

Zinc supplementation for preventing mortality, morbidity, and growth failure in children aged 6 months to 12 years

Imdad, A, Rogner, J, Sherwani, RN, et al. · Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews · 2023 · Cochrane Library

Developmental, Psychosocial and Learning Problems2 versionsAMSTAR 2: not assessed

SoF tableOnly the outcomes this review put in its Summary of Findings table are listed (the Cochrane Handbook caps them at about seven per comparison). Its other analyses are not shown here.

Questions

current version

GRADE rated

No studies

Included studies

No studies 0 · 0%Ungraded 0 · 0%Very low 0 · 0%Low 0 · 0%Moderate 5 · 62.5%High 3 · 37.5%

Ungraded means an effect was reported without a GRADE rating; it is not a gap. No studies means the review found nothing to answer the question. The six categories are a display order, not a score.

Questions and results

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Zinc supplementation compared to no zinc supplementation for preventing mortality, morbidity, and growth failure in children aged 6 months to 12 years of age

Population: otherwise healthy children aged 6 months to 12 years of age

8 questions

Outcome	Effect	Evidence	Status / GRADE
All‐cause mortality Zinc supplementation vs no zinc supplementation	RR 0.93 [0.84, 1.03]	16 studies · 143474 participants	High
Mortality due to all‐cause diarrhea Zinc supplementation vs no zinc supplementation	RR 0.95 [0.69, 1.31]	4 studies · 132321 participants	Moderate Downgraded: risk of bias
Mortality due to LRTI Zinc supplementation vs no zinc supplementation	RR 0.86 [0.64, 1.15]	3 studies · 132063 participants	Moderate
Mortality due to malaria Zinc supplementation vs no zinc supplementation	RR 0.9 [0.77, 1.06]	2 studies · 42818 participants	Moderate
Incidence of all‐cause diarrhea Zinc supplementation vs no zinc supplementation	RR 0.91 [0.9, 0.93]	39 studies · 19468 participants	Moderate Downgraded: inconsistency
Incidence of LRTI Zinc supplementation vs no zinc supplementation	RR 1.01 [0.95, 1.08]	19 studies · 10555 participants	High
Height Zinc supplementation vs no zinc supplementation	no estimate extracted	74 studies · 20720 participants	Moderate Downgraded: risk of bias, inconsistency
Participants with ≥ 1 vomiting episode Zinc supplementation vs no zinc supplementation	RR 1.29 [1.14, 1.46]	5 studies · 35192 participants	High