Ascaris and growth rates: a randomized trial of treatment.
Three hundred forty-one Tanzanian preschool children were randomly assigned to levamisole or placebo treatment given at three-month intervals. Weights and heights were measured at the tri-monthly treatment visits for a period of one year. Among the 273 children who were seen and weighed at the one-year follow-up visit, the rate of weight gain was 8 per cent greater for those receiving levamisole than for placebo-treated controls (p = .06). In 78 children known to be infected with Ascaris at baseline, the rate of weight gain was 21 per cent greater in children treated with levamisole than in those receiving placebo (p = .03). The rate of height gain was no different for treatment and placebo groups.
D001196:Ascariasis / Q000188:drug therapy*; D001827:Body Height / Q000187:drug effects; D001835:Body Weight / Q000187:drug effects; D002648:Child; D002664:Child Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D006128:Growth / Q000187:drug effects*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007978:Levamisole / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D010919:Placebos; D011897:Random Allocation; D013636:Tanzania
D010919:Placebos; D007978:Levamisole