Acceptability of rice-based and flavoured glucose-based oral rehydration solutions: a randomized controlled trial

The acceptability of prepackaged rice-based (Oresol-R) and flavoured (Oresol-F) glucose-based oral rehydration salts (ORS) solutions was compared with that of standard glucose-based ORS (Oresol-G) in a randomized field trial. Additionally, it is determined if presenting rice-based ORS as a solution that would help stop diarrhoea (Oresol-K) enhanced its acceptability. A total of 437 non-dehydrated children aged less than five years presenting to health centres with acute diarrhoea were randomly assigned to the three ORS groups. Acceptability was determined by the amounts of ORS consumed at home by children still with diarrhoea on 24- or 48-hour follow-up. The amounts of ORS consumed by children given Oresol-R (54 [95% CL 38-70] mL/kg/24 h) and Oresol-F (47 [24-70]) were similar to the amount of Oresol-G (44 [32-56]). ORS consumption was not affected by the child's age, nutritional status, feeding before the episode, duration of diarrhoea at health centre visit, maternal education and previous ORS use. Informing the caretaker that rice-based ORS would help stop diarrhoea did not lead to increased consumption of the solution (Oresol-R 54 [38-70] mL/kg/24 h; Oresol-K 50 [32-68]). Solution preparation was likewise similar among the treatment groups. Reactions to the different ORS types were generally favourable but did not differ between the groups.