Clinical Trial of a Rice-Powder Oral Rehydration Beverage

Abstract

A clinical trial was conducted to assess the efficacy of a rice-based gruel as a rehydration solution, identified in a previous study to be widely used by mothers during diarrhoeal episodes in their children. Seventy children under five years of age, admitted to a paediatric hospital with clinical dehydration secondary to acute diarrhoea, were randomly assigned to receive rice-based gruel (n = 37) or oral rehydration salts (ORS) (n = 33). The hydration status was measured on admission and hourly until discharge, for a maximum of 8 hours, after which treatment was considered to have failed in children who had not been rehydrated Successful rehydration was achieved in 92% of the patients receiving rice-based gruel and 91% of those receiving ORS. Over 50% of all patients were rehydrated 4 to 5 hours after treatment was initiated; at these times the faecal output was statistically significantly lower in patients receiving rice-based gruel than in those receiving ORS. More patients were discharged from the study with hypernatraemia in the group receiving ORS than in the group receiving rice-based gruel, whereas the number of patients with hyponatraemia on discharge was similar in both groups. Faecal sodium concentrations were similar on admission in both groups but were statistically significantly lower at discharge in the group receiving rice-based gruel. We concluded that rice-based gruel could be safely used as an oral rehydration solution at the community level.