Zinc Treatment for Childhood Diarrhea in Bangladesh - Recent Advances and Issues in Environmental Science - page 218

Table 1. The proportion of children receiving zinc treatment and among these children the
formulation taken by type of provider seen at 19-23 months post-launch of the scale-up campaign.

Provider Child Formulation Taken

n Children Seen Received Zinc (%) Tablet (%) Syrup (%)

Private, unlicensed village doctors or drug vendors 1,670 18.1 73.5 26.5

Private, licensed MBBS doctors 372 39.2 43.2 56.8

Public sector, MOHFW health providers 220 25.9 49.1 50.9

Overall 2,262 20.3 60.9 39.1

72% of the children surveyed were seen by a provider for their diarrheal Illness.
doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1000175.t001

In each survey period signifi cant differences (p<0.001) in the use of zinc were
observed favoring higher quintile wealth asset households (Figure 4). At 18 months
signifi cant disparities in the likelihood of receiving zinc treatment on the basis of gen-
der were limited to municipal households and favored males (21% versus 16%, p =
0.024). No gender bias at any time interval was observed in urban slum and rural poor
households. As can be seen from the concentration index curves summarized in Figure
5, income disparities in the use of zinc decreased over time. Referring to the fi gure, if
there were no disparity in the use of zinc on the basis of household income status (as-
set score) then the poorest 60% of children would have accounted for 60% of the total
zinc treatments received. At the outset of the mass media campaign (1-3 months) this
lower 60% accounted for only 28% of the zinc treatments received, but by the end of
the second year (19-23 months) this had risen to 46%.

Figure 4. Changes in zinc coverage over time by household wealth asset quintile (1 lowest, 5 highest).