Effect of Probiotics and Zinc Combination to the Frequency and Duration of Diarrhea in Pediatrics Patients at PKU Muhammadiyah Hospital Yogyakarta

Based on the survey of household health and basic medical research over the years, diarrhea is a major cause of infant mortality in Indonesia. Probiotics have been used extensively in acute diarrhea in children, although are not recommended yet by Word Health Organization (WHO). Research on comparative of increasing probiotic research to standard therapy of diarrhea is still very limited. Therefore this study was conducted to determine the effect of probiotics given concomitantly with standard therapy of diarrhea to the frequency and duration of acute diarrhea in children. This study was conducted by cohort design with data collection was performed prospectively in children patients with acute diarrhea in the pediatric ward of PKU Muhammadiyah Hospital in Yogyakarta from September until December 2015. Subjects were receiving standard therapy of diarrhea (rehydration solution and zinc) as group I, and who received standard therapy diarrhea (rehydration solution and zinc) combined with probiotics as group II. The main observation variables were frequency and duration of diarrhea. Differences of diarrhea frequency and diarrhea duration between groups normally distributed were analyzed by parametric unpaired t-test, while not normally distributed were analyzed by non-parametric Mann-Whitney test. During the study period we recruited 44 subjects who met the inclusion criteria, which consisted of 38 subjects who received fluid rehydration therapy, zinc and probiotics and as much as 6 subjects who received therapy rehydration liquid and zinc. The results show the frequency of diarrhea in group I is less than group II, the average value of group I is 1 time and the average value of group II is 3 times (p=0.024). Duration of diarrhea was shorter in group I with the average value of 46 hours 30 minutes than in group II 53 hours 10 minutes (p=0.515). This study suggests that the administration of probiotics in the standard therapy of diarrhea did not significantly affect the reduction in the frequency of diarrhea and the duration of diarrhea, compared to the group given only the standard therapy of diarrhea in the management of acute diarrhea in children