PLoS Medicine
(Accessed 18 May 2013)
http://www.plosmedicine.org/

Setting Research Priorities to Reduce Mortality and Morbidity of Childhood Diarrhoeal Disease in the Next 15 Years
Kerri Wazny, Alvin Zipursky, Robert Black, Valerie Curtis, Christopher Duggan, Richard Guerrant, Myron Levine, William A. Petri Jr, Mathuram Santosham, Rebecca Scharf, Philip M. Sherman, Evan Simpson, Mark Young, Zulfiqar A. Bhutta

Summary Points
This paper aims to identify research priorities, using the Child Health and Nutrition Research Initiative’s (CHNRI’s) method, for global childhood diarrhoeal disease over the next 15 years.

Ten teams were established, and over 150 experts participated on one or more teams, generating and scoring 466 research questions.

Research questions involving improving implementation, especially through behaviour change and other delivery strategies ranked highly; oral rehydration and zinc were also seen as priorities, as research questions asking to identify driving factors of caregiver demand for oral rehydration solution (ORS) and zinc and development of an ORS formulation that reduces stool output were ranked highly.

Despite a range of discovery-related research topics, implementation research questions related to known interventions for childhood diarrhoeal diseases were ranked highly by most experts.

In tandem with the Global Action Plan for Pneumonia and Diarrhoea, concerted efforts by a range of stakeholders in implementation research will be needed to equitably scale up already proven, effective interventions.

http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pmed.1001446